The us suffered a loss of confidence because they thought would be in space before the soviets. Hope this helps!
The declaration of faith is the first of the five pillars of Islam, because it is very important. Declaring faith mean being dedicated and loyal to the religion. It means you sincerely believe in Islam, you are willing to follow the beliefs, and that there is no other god but Allah.
The world's population today is much larger than it has been in anytime in the history of the world, and has been continuing to grow ever since the Industrial Revolution, since this raised the living standards and increased in incomes of an enormous number of people, especially in the western world. Advances in medicine have also played a major role.
