[extropy-chat] Islamic morons win yet again

[Lee Corbin]

Robert writes

> At 12:01 AM 10/1/2006 -0400, Keith H. wrote:

> I should have thought it's obvious: so they could do things with
> their lives in addition to producing and looking after one child
> after another after another...

No, 'twas Damien who spake thus.

Robert continues

> [The explanation is] K-selection.  Fewer offspring, more resources
> invested in those. 

> I suspect as things like vaccinations, emergency room care, etc.
> increased the probability of children surviving women may have
> chosen to invest more resources in individual children.  As fewer
> children were needed for harvesting, feeding the chickens, milking
> the cows, etc. the need for slave labor diminished.  College is an
> expensive proposition, better to save so a few can go rather than
> none at all. 

Right---that supplied the motive, and contraception provided the 
means.

> It is important to keep in mind that the decline in children per family
> is not a Irish, Spanish, or even European or U.S. phenomena...

It's taken place wherever the average IQ is near 100 or over.

Damien had gone on

> > Indeed.  I suspect there would be interesting lessons here as
> > to when local cultural practicality (perhaps even rational thought?!?)
> > trumps indoctrinated meme sets (aka belief systems).  Understanding
> > this might give one hope that irrational belief systems are not unstoppable. 

Evil triumphs when good men do nothing.

Lee