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> the same people who threw away roughly two thousand of years of the most successful philosophy have doomed themselves to a demographic death spiral I don't t
by petsfed 3y ago
> the same people who threw away roughly two thousand of years of the most successful philosophy have doomed themselves to a demographic death spiral
I don't think this is true. Falling birth rate is positively correlated with key markers of quality of life (especially infant survival rate, education, overall lifespan, and productivity) irrespective of dominant religion or religiosity in general.
edit: changed "infant mortality" to "infant survival" so as to not contradict "positively correlated"
- iraqmtpizza 3y agoSorry, that doesn't explain the massive fertility gap between atheists and theists or the fact that atheists are nowhere remotely near replacement rate
- petsfed 3y agoJust to understand here: you're claiming that since atheists have fewer children, they'll eventually be out-bred by the religious? Atheism is, in general, a consequence of, not a cause of, all the things that also result in lower birth rates. Birth rates in the US started to fall a lot earlier than religiosity did.
- iraqmtpizza 3y agoLOL none of that remotely explains the massive fertility gap between atheists and theists. You can talk about the general population until you're blue in the face. That doesn't change statistical facts.
- petsfed 3y agoI'm saying that atheism and lower birth rates are caused by increases in overall quality of life. I'm not addressing whether or not atheists in fact have fewer children. That seems self-evident. I'm saying that you're misidentifying cause and effect here. I will say that its a little weird to suggest that atheism will die out simply because atheists will have fewer children. Atheism is not, in general, spread via proselytizing or family or community education (religious apathy, certainly, is spread that way but not motivated self-identification as an atheist), so much as what you might call "anti-religious experiences": experiences that set a person to seriously questioning then rejecting the concept of god(s). For good or ill, modern scientific knowledge has made religious experiences (that is, powerful emotional experiences that so defy explanation that a person feels compelled to accept them as the work of god(s)) much rarer.
- iraqmtpizza 3y agoSo you're saying that atheists have a vastly higher quality of life and that explains the fertilty gap? This is just a bare assertion, and absurd considering all data about well-being and having children. Atheism won't die out, but atheists largely will. The atheists of the future will have had religious parents. In this way, atheism is a persistent freerider, gluing itself to the coattails of belief.
- petsfed 3y agoIf you're not going to respond to my posts in good faith, then don't respond. From the fucking top: PEOPLE are experiencing greater quality of life than ever before. This has led to several things, including lower birth rate and lower religiosity. Straw man that.
- iraqmtpizza 3y agoLOL none of that remotely explains the massive fertility gap between atheists and theists. You can talk about the general population until you're blue in the face. That doesn't change statistical facts.