There are enough people now. Time to lighten up. The Obama Administration has declared war on the Catholic Church over birth control, which is leading to an interesting showdown.

Our current betting is that Obama will cave and allow Catholic organizations to buy insurance that does not cover birth control—which some Catholic leaders still apparently, ludicrously, say is a sin.

And when Obama caves to the Catholics, that will open the door for everyone else who finds his Obamacare requirements abhorrent. So we expect a bunch more wars to be declared.

But regardless of how the White House-Vatican showdown turns out, the war has reminded everyone that even now, in the year 2012, some Catholic leaders are still saying that birth control is a sin.

(We say "some" because we assume some are also using their brains and have the good sense to keep their traps shut.)

This is ridiculous.

It also makes Catholic leaders look like fools.

Not surprisingly, Catholics resoundingly ignore this idiotic stance. A recent study found that 98% of Catholic women use birth control. And a majority of Catholics think insurance should cover free birth control.

So even Catholics realize that the Church's position on birth control is preposterous.

Importantly, the world has changed since the Bible was written. (A silly adherence to a text written ~2,000 years ago is presumably what is behind the Church's official position on this.)

When the Bible was written, there were a couple of hundred million people on the Earth, and fewer Catholics.

The birth of new humans in those days was pretty much offset by the death of existing humans, what with the state of life-expectancy and medicine and hygiene and consumer protection.

Human population. Wikipedia

So of course Catholics were well-advised to be fruitful and multiply back then, especially given the Church's desire to have more and more people become Catholics (more revenue and customers for the Church—what business doesn't want to grow?).

But now it's ~2,000 years later. And there are ~7 billion people in the world, including over a billion Catholics. And this population growth is absolutely unsustainable. And we now have some basic science that helps us control (or at least limit) it. And this technology also allows us to have sex a lot, which is fun.

So the Catholic Church's position on this issue is utterly absurd.

(Not to mention irresponsible, given the explosion of human population.)

Like some other Catholic positions and behaviors, it's also damaging the Catholicism brand.

So we urge the Church to drop it.

SEE ALSO: Obama Declares War On The Catholic Church