Atheists a Dying Breed?

'it's': these atheists can't spell

When I was a young, militant anti-Catholic, my good Catholic buddy would often remind me: "Sorry, friend.  We will always outnumber you because we have more children."

He had me.  The only way we'd overtake the Catholics, it seemed, was by out-converting them at a high rate.

But things are even worse for atheists in this regard it appears.  Though we are often told by atheism and scientism proselytizers that the "Enlightened" future will look grim for those of the "superstitious" persuasion, if the article linked to is correct (and based on my anecdotal evidence it sure seems likely), atheists have an evolutionary disadvantage--they just don't produce as many kids as people who are religious.  (Of course, the Christian faith also holds that the gates of hell will never prevail against the Church, but it doesn't hurt to have science on one's side).

Professor Jesse Bering, director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at Queen's University, Belfast, who has just published "The God Instinct", a book on the origins of religion, said such an approach missed the basic point, that in practical terms evolution was reinforcing religion with every new generation.

He said: "Secular, nonreligious people are being dramatically out-reproduced by religious people of any faith. Since religiosity is to some degree a heritable trait, offspring born to religious parents are not only dyed in the wool of their faith through their culture, but may also be genetically more susceptible to indoctrination than children born to nonreligious parents."

He added: "As a childless gay atheist I suspect my own genes have a very mortal future ahead. But for any godless hetero-couples reading this, toss your contraceptives and get busy in the bedroom. Either that or, perish the thought, God isn't going anywhere anytime soon."