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Last weekend I heard a briefing about population trends in Israel, and the subject came up of those trends in Europe. Bennett and Roberta, the experts presenting the briefing, said that Europeans are breeding themselves out of existence, just by having low birthrates. I asked why that might be. Someone in the audience, Allyson, mentioned her opinion that it was because those Europeans had abandoned religion. I said, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to check the birthrates of American Liberals versus Conservatives? Wouldn’t it be a bombshell if there was a difference in those birthrates?”
When I got home I did a quick Google search, and to my surprise, there appears to be just such a difference in the birthrates of Liberals versus Conservatives.
From Paul Cameron:
The growth states are mainly Republican … and the dying states are mainly Democrat… The rapidly dying states averaged 0.7 (that is, only 0.7 away from a perfect Democrat 0), the dying states averaged 0.95, the growing averaged 1.75, and the rapidly growing states averaged 2.3 (0.7 away from a perfect Republican 3).
Gay rights was strongly correlated with demographic decline: 5 (50%) of the 10 most rapidly dying states and 6 (32%) of the 19 dying states have gay rights (states with gay rights averaged 0.1). No growing state has gay rights.
From The Baby Gap: Explaining Red and Blue—How birthrates color the electoral map:
You could predict 74 percent of the variation in Bush’s shares just from knowing each state’s white fertility rate. When the average fertility goes up by a tenth of a child, Bush’s share normally goes up by 4.5 points.
...white birthrates and Republican voting are closely correlated…
While these two articles make no reference to religion, it is striking that Liberals, who oppose religion, are showing substantially lower birthrates than Conservatives, who favor it.
As I’ve noted in this previous post, in my opinion the Liberals are making an error to oppose religion. They are correct that there is no guy with a long white beard sitting in a gold chair up in the clouds; but there is surely something real to which people have referred by the word, God. Just because science can’t yet specify what God is, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. There’s tons of things science hasn’t yet discovered.
By opposing religion, many Liberals have inadvertently, and I think, mistakenly, turned their backs on their own true feelings of worship, reverence, and devotion. When was the last time Howard Dean, or Al Gore, or Hillary Clinton, showed strong feelings of worship, reverence, or devotion, for anything? The party is almost defined by the lack of these feelings.
The opposition to these feelings may very well result in lower birthrates; it seems to be the reverse of romantic.
In closing, permit me to quote from my favorite poet, W.B. Yeats:
He with body waged a fight,
But body won; it walks upright.
Then he struggled with the heart;
Innocence and peace depart.
Then he struggled with the mind;
His proud heart he left behind.
Now his wars on God begin;
At stroke of midnight God shall win.
