There is no magic bullet for raising birth rates
by Alessandra Bocchi, The Critic:
A complex network of spiritual, cultural and economic factors underpin our fertility slump.
The influence of religion on fertility is undeniable. Since the dawn of Western society — first through various Pagan European faiths and then to Christianity — an everlasting purpose created a duty to carry on a legacy on earth. Through a spiritual lens, relationships are, for the most part, viewed in the context of marriage and/or procreation. There is less of a motive for one-night stands, long-term relationships without the ultimate intention of a family or cohabitation without the prospect of lifelong commitment.
It is not just the lack of spirituality itself which causes people to lose a practical sense of direction, but the reverberations this loss of transcendental meaning has on human psychology. Without a belief in a creator, it is difficult to believe in oneself, let alone in the future of humanity. This is why we often hear the phrase, “I don’t want to bring children into this world”. Reason has replaced faith. We hear rational arguments for having children, arguments that seek to maximise personal comfort, instead of trusting divine instruction, which can often be irrational. Restoring a sense of spirituality is a challenging prospect, but a necessary one to preserve the value of our posterity.
The decline in religious observance isn’t the only reason for low birth rates. Many argue that economics is not a cause of a decline in fertility because poorer nations have the highest birth rates. This is statistically true, but it overlooks the structural nature of richer, post-industrial economies. In poorer, pre-industrial agrarian societies, children contributed to a family’s labour, enriching its economic output. Italy, for example, just one-hundred years ago, was largely a proletariat society. It was common for families to have five or more children, because having children was a net benefit: they could help the family with labour and take care of parents and grandparents in old age.
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