> This has a huge impact because the birth rates for irreligious people are very low. It seems irreligious people are slightly more rational about these things

> This has a huge impact because the birth rates for irreligious people are very low. It seems irreligious people are slightly more rational about these things. Raising a kid is a huge undertaking, and a lot of work. But a huge part of the problem with low fertility is religion. Western religions advocate for a fixed family structure: one man, one woman. Even most irreligious people still abide by that precept, we haven't been free from dogma for long enough. The end result is that the work of raising a kid falls into a family which is way too small and stretched, living alone and relatively isolated in a suburb. If a couple needs to commit 95% of their time together to their kid, it's going to be a hard sell for those two people. Grandparents can help, and they do, but the generational divide makes it so that most grown-ups don't want to live with their parents.