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| March 20, 2007 |
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| Dear Concerned Citizen, |
by Dr. Benjamin Wiker |
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The secular mindset is dead set that its agenda will rule the future, but its agenda includes having almost no children. It never occurred to them that, without children, their agenda has no future.
Eric Kaufmann in a recent article in Prospect Magazine entitled "Breeding for God" drives this all too obvious point home.
"In Europe, the fertility advantage of the religious over non-believers has historically been counterbalanced by the march of secularization." But no longer. Not in Europe; not in the world. "The share of the world's population that is religious is growing, after nearly a century of modest decline. This effect has been produced in the younger generations in the developing world rejecting secularization, combined with higher religious fertility levels. Throughout the world, the religious tend to have more children, irrespective of age, education or wealth."
Note the shocker (at least in regard to the unquestioned assumptions of secular faith): "irrespective of age, education or wealth."
Secular faith tied together three unquestioned components of its creed: the young will always side with progress (and progress means secularization); religion is irrational therefore education will necessarily cause enlightenment (i.e., the acceptance of secularism); and poverty makes people credulous (and therefore prone to religion) and prone to overbreeding (because they have not been enlightened, especially about birth control). Therefore, with the advance of education and prosperity, secularization must increase as religion decreases.
But now it is the young, the educated, and the well-off who are becoming more religious. And they are breeding at an alarming rate.
Alarming to secularists, that is. But what can they do? Essential to their creed is that education brings enlightenment. It never occurred to them that—Oh, how did this happen?! Who was sleeping on his/her watch?!—their children might encounter cogently-reasoned, profound critiques of secularism, and equally cogent and profound arguments for religious faith. And then, horrors or horrors!, turn to fruitful multiplication.
What to do? One form of secular denial is simply to see the whole thing as a breeding takeover by irrational, radical Muslims. But that is not even a half-truth. Certainly the Muslim population of Europe is out-breeding the aging white population of old Europeans at an alarming rate (alarming to secularists, that is). But as we have argued in previous emails, while there are radical Muslims, most Muslims are not out to bomb non-Muslims. They are quite well-educated, rational human beings who are intellectually and morally repulsed at decadent secular western culture.
But it just ain't so that this phenomenon is confined to Muslims. Evangelicals in both America and Europe and quite well educated and well-off financially. And they are having children. That accounts for the interesting "fertility advantage" that religious "red" states have over the liberal "blue" states in recent US elections. As Arthur Brooks at Syracuse University made startlingly clear: "if you picked 100 unrelated politically liberal adults at random, you would find that they had, between them, 147 children. If you picked 100 conservatives, you would find 208 kids. That's a 'fertility gap' of 41 per cent." And again, do the math yourself. In a generation the gap will have been geometrically widened.
Demography in democracy is political destiny, be it in America, in Europe, or anywhere in the world. The future belongs to those who go forth and multiply.
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Responses to Remembering St. Patrick:
In response to your article about St. Patrick, some of the ‘key facts’ (“there is agreement on several key facts”) are not considered by most scholars to be facts at all. The only facts that are undisputed by most scholars regarding St. Patrick are those included in his own surviving writings, his ‘Confession’ and ‘Letter to Coroticus’. He worked in an oral society, so there is an almost total absence of contemporary written accounts. The story of the shamrock does not appear in his own writings or the earliest accounts of his life and ministry. While it is clear that he was ordained there is a great deal of uncertainty surrounding the specifics of his studies and ordination. His appointment by pope Celestine is also the subject of ongoing discussion. For anyone who wants to read about the real St. Patrick I would highly recommend the books “Let me die in Ireland: The true story of St. Patrick” by David W. Bercot, and a translation of St. Patrick’s Confession such as the one included in “St. Patrick, the real story of Patrick” by George Otto Simms a former Archbishop of Armagh and highly respected scholar, both of which are available through amazon. Surely a more relevant photograph could have been found than Dunluce Castle which has no connection with St. Patrick, and does not reflect the spirit of Patrick. I have some original photos of Glendalough and other Celtic Christian sites which may be of interest, available to view and download for free at http://travel.webshots.com/album/556385246CiktZV. Thanks for your most informative and stimulating articles.
- Philip Thompson
In the last 25 years it has come to light that St. Patrick and his Irish converts, as followers of Christ, kept the Seventh-day Sabbath as did Christ, the Apostles and all first century Christians. In fact there is evidence that the Irish Christians continued to observe the seventh-day Sabbath all the way down to the tenth century when Sunday observance was forced upon them by religious powers outside of Ireland.
- Norman Moll
If you think Patrick was a Catholic, you are wrong, so very wrong. Where did you get this info about the Pope sending him to Ireland? Please, recheck your sources.
- Gary Fuller |
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Responses to other tothesource articles:
Last week the discovery channel had a program called "the lost tomb of Jesus." I lead a small group Bible study for my church. One of my members has been very troubled by this program.
Obviously If Jesus's body / bones are in a grave somewhere then we're to be pitied.
Do you have any information to share on this issue?
- N.
Editors Note: Click this link to view the tothesource article regarding the
The Lost Tomb of Jesus
I have been able to identify with a great number of the articles. What is interesting is that I have always thought of myself as someone with Christian values but not necessarily a Christian. I have faith that there is a God, the question is more about denomination than existence. I therefore have never considered myself an atheist, more of an agnostic, there was one of the newsletters that touched on this subject that left me with feeling that this is a very complex issue that has many people still scratching their heads.
Back to my question about Prophets, why is it that all of the scriptures, Prophets and religions have been based on writings of Prophets of thousands of years ago. Have there been any modern day Prohphets in the last couple of hundred years? It just seems odd to me that God spoke to so many then and not now.
I would be interested if there has been any discussion on this, if you have any readings I would like to read them.
- L. Smith
To The Source Editor:
In the National Review dated March 19, 2007 is a wonderful long book review by Michael Novak titled "Lonely Atheists of The Global Village". It is one of the best defenses of Christianity (and Judaism) against the onslaughts of atheism I've ever seen. Novak reviews three books (Letter to a Christian Nation, by Sam Harris; Breaking the Spell, by Daniel C Dennett; and The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins) together, and in the process, provides a superb, and courteous refutation of the basic themes of atheism. I recommend it highly. Disclosure: it is about twelve typewritten pages long. Perhaps you could serialize it?? Mr. Novak is the George Frederick Jewett scholar of religion, philosophy, and public policy at the American Enterprise Institute.
Keep up the good work!
- Don Power |
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We live complex lives. We strive to sort out priorities that sometimes conflict or seem incompatible. A moral framework is needed to help us understand the reality around us. Our Judeo-Christian heritage provides a framework to help us comprehend the choices we make and the conflicts that arise over them. It is not only the main source of our spiritual values, but also many of the secular values we depend on.
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Benjamin Wiker
Benjamin Wiker holds a Ph.D. in Theological Ethics from Vanderbilt University, and has taught at Marquette University, St. Mary's University (MN), and Thomas Aquinas College (CA).
He is a full-time writer, husband, and father. Dr. Wiker is a Senior Fellow of Discovery Institute and a Senior Fellow at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology. He writes regularly for a variety of journals.
Dr. Wiker has written four books, Moral Darwinism: How We Became Hedonists (IVP), The Mystery of the Periodic Table (Bethlehem), Architects of the Culture of Death (Ignatius), and most recently, A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature (IVP). |
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