[extropy-chat] Extinctions

[J. Andrew Rogers]

On Jun 11, 2006, at 5:25 PM, Anders Sandberg wrote:
> It is interesting to see that the numbers are down even highly  
> Catholic
> european countries, as well as many poorer countries that anyway  
> seem to
> be developing. Current US/Vatican interventions may be obnoxious,  
> but I
> don't think they can change the trend.


I'll add that in prosperous South American countries such as Chile  
where ~90% of the population is Catholic and Catholic doctrine is  
enforced as a matter of law (divorce? abortion? etc? never heard of  
it), the populations are already starting to drop below replacement  
rates.  Many of these countries have per capita incomes that are  
something like half that of western Europe.

Vatican intervention aside, even in countries where the vast majority  
subscribe to such doctrine as a legal principle by default, birth  
rates are dropping rapidly.  It seems that the populations in these  
countries are becoming less religious with time, but I suspect that  
this is merely correlated with declining birth rates, not  
significantly causative.

J. Andrew Rogers