BREAKING THE SPELL
Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
By Daniel C. Dennett
Viking. 448 pp. $25.95
Fertility rates in the relatively secular blue states are 12 percent lower than in the relatively religious red states, according to Philip Longman in the March/April issue of Foreign Policy. In Europe, a similar correlation holds. As Longman writes: "Do you seldom, if ever, attend church? For whatever reason, people answering affirmatively . . . are far more likely to live alone, or in childless, cohabitating unions, than those who answer negatively." For the most secular cultures in the world, Longman predicts a temporary drop in absolute population as secular liberals die out and a concomitant cultural transformation as, "by a process similar to survival of the fittest," they are demographically replaced by religious conservatives.
Reviewed by Jack Miles,
senior fellow with the Pacific Council on International Policy and general editor of the forthcoming Norton Anthology of World Religions (Thursday, June 29, 2006; Page C03)
People have always been forecasting the death of common sense and rationality. But this author, it seems to me, underestimates the intelligence of future generations. If you assume that the brightest get to the top in some form or other and run governments and institutions (you can argue that the wrong bright ones do so, but that is another matter!). It is the brightest and most capable who have the enquiring, flexible minds. It is they who will continue to run the world and who will ensure that scientific research continues. As science uncovers more and more about the Earth, mankind and its origins, more people will abandon superstition. Even a century ago, who would have foreseen that so many Europeans would have thrown off the yoke of the church in places like Ireland and Poland. That is caused by better education and higher living standards. If you want to increase religiosity, make people less secure, less well fed and less educated.