Is Earth's impending 'empty cradle' due to selfishness?

Simply put, one cause of low birthrates is selfishness and desire for material goals. One study states that "below-replacement fertility levels in developed countries resulted from social changes associated with the pursuit of post-materialist values such as self actualization, individual autonomy and recognition of individual achievement." Having children also declines where "children are seen to reduce individual freedom and self-fulfillment."

It is also widely believed that secularization or declining religious belief decreases birthrates. Though birthrates vary even among believers, Phillip Longman points out that "the religiously minded generally have bigger families than do secularists." Almost every study I have looked at reaches the same conclusion. Many researchers are alarmed by that fact.

Of interest to many of our readers is that numerous demographers note that the link between religious belief and fertility is especially strong in the LDS Church. Longman tell us that "in Utah, where 69 percent of all residents are registered members of The Church (of Jesus Christ) of Latter-day Saints, fertility rates are the highest in the nation. Utah annually produces 90 children for every 1000 women of childbearing age. By comparison, Vermont — the only state to send a socialist to Congress and the first to embrace gay marriage — produces only 49."

One very interesting contrary view on the relationship between belief and birthrate comes from Mary Eberstadt, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. In a recent Policy Review article,"How the West Really Lost God," Eberstadt compellingly argues that, at least in Western Europe, "Christians did not stop having children and families because they became secular (rather), at least some of the time, they also became secular because they stopped having children and families." (www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/7827212.html)

Maybe it is not a coincidence that the first recorded commandment from God to humankind is to "multiply and replenish the Earth."

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Joseph A. Cannon is editor of the Deseret Morning News