Restating My "Religion Does Good" Post More Explicitly

[bunny]

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Maybe it's easier to get a grasp of this issue from a different angle. WHat keeps people from procreating at replacement rates? It's not enough to say 'birth control' and leave it at that. There's a reason behind every concious choice not to reproduce. In the ex-USSR I figure that the general shithole economy and overall bleak future have alot to do with it, just as Ireland exhibits the opposite with a sound fertility rate. But Italy and Spain are tough to peg. They have given up breeding as (lapsed) Catholics and I suspect that it's a combination of creeping atheism and selfishness. I see the Scandinavian countries following the same path. Vermont is on that track, fertility rate of 1.5 .

Time will tell. Nothing is for sure in social science.

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I dont find it a particularly interesting question, but it seems to me that you are claiming religious countries breed more (and cite ireland as an example) then when a counterexample like spain is presented you claim they cant really be religious since they're not breeding much. Isnt that begging the question?