Roman Catholic nations show a trend ahead of the rest of the world in controlling their population growth despite the policy around birth control, notes Richard Dawson.

The ODT's record of publishing diverse views is second to none. And without doubt the view of Nick Cohen from the Observer (ODT, 26.6.15) was worth reading.

However, I must question why on earth it was published under the Faith and Reason banner for, to be frank, it fitted neither.

By his own admission, Mr Cohen is no believer and his views accord far more convincingly with the outspoken atheists he quotes in the article. Faith is neither his desire nor his preserve.

What then of reason?

Cohen's main beef is with the Catholic Church's policy of being against birth control.

According to Cohen, this is a misogynist hangover from a Church committed to following its own dogma blindly, which flies in the face of Pope Francis' concern for both the health of the Earth and the welfare of the world's poor.

Birth-control policy enslaves women and promotes population growth, says Cohen.

But does it?

A cursory look at some of the statistics around the Catholic Church would suggest that, at the very least, the policy is not leading to greater population growth but, indeed, to reduced population growth.

Globally, the growth rate of the human population has been declining since peaking in 1962 and 1963 at 2.20% per annum.

In 2009, the estimated annual growth rate was 1.1%.

Every region of the globe has seen great reductions in growth rate in recent decades and, though the world's population continues to rise largely because of the advance in medical technology and the availability of such, this rise is, itself, slowing and by the end of this century will be back to a rate comparable to the 1940s, when the total population was much smaller.

So the population rate is heading back towards zero and perhaps, in the very near future, some of the states which still have very high rates will also have this under control.

What of the Catholic or largely Catholic nations?

The 10 largest Roman Catholic nations are Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, the US, Italy, Colombia, France, Poland, Spain and DR Congo.

Of these, fully seven fall below the world average population growth, and Poland is into the negatives, meaning its population is falling.

The average for these Roman Catholic nations is 0.961% so, in fact, Roman Catholic nations are ahead of the rest of the world in controlling their population growth, despite the policy around birth control.

Nick Cohen's opinion may well be worth publishing but certainly not under the heading ''Faith and Reason''.

• Richard Dawson is a Dunedin Presbyterian minister.