[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Can you tell us something about how reproductive decision making is > influenced by religion? Most would agree that population growth is a > global change driver, and that the adoption of birth control technology > has a strong influence over birth rates. What is the relative > contribution of religion to the adoption and diffusion of birth control > technology, relative to other socioeconomic factors, prinicpally, cost?
This is an excellent question. I assume that by "birth control technology" you mean the entire spectrum of artificial birth control techniques, including contraceptives, abortifacients, and abortion procedures, since they are all now supported by technology. Religion does have a critical influence on reproductive decision making, but only minimally via the adoption or rejection of birth control technology. To my knowledge, the Roman Catholic Church is the only religious institution that has zero tolerance for abortion and keeps insisting on a limited use of birth control techniques. There are 1.1 billion Roman Catholics, but a very small percentage of "practicing Catholics" actually practice what the church teaches on this matter. I think that the strongest influence of religion on population growth is via the perpetuation of the patriarchal mindset, which is based to a significant extent on the "male God" image. There is empirical evidence that this is the case. For instance, if you compare the population growth trends in the first and third worlds, it seems clear that the first world birth rates are declining (perhaps too much?) while the third world birth rates continue to increase. This is a complex issue with many factors being influential. We know that "the bed is the consolation of the poor," etc., etc. But the most influential factor is (I think) that both men and women in the first world are better educated in the use of birth control techniquess; both men and women participate (at least to some extent) in reproductive decision making; and a significantly higher percentage of both men and women are able to make such decisions with some degree of freedom from the rules imposed by the patriarchal mindset. In the third world, the situation is reversed: most men and women are poorly educated in the use of birth control techniques; few women participate in reproductive decision making as they must be ready to have sex (marital or extra-marital, protected or unprotected) when the male is ready for sex; and the patriarchal mindset encourages large families, with many men indulging in extramarital sex and most women still being under heavy moral and/or cultural pressure against using birth control techniques, even if they could pay for it. Needless to say, the population growth issue should be considered in context with other global issues, e.g., 80% or more of energy and other resources are consumed by 20% or less of people currently alive. Personally, I believe that the highest priorities are to reduce the extravagant consumption rates in the first world, reduce corruption in the third world, and revise trade agreements which perpetuate "resources going from the poor to the rich, and pollution going from the rich to the poor" (Vandana Shiva). I also propose that those religious institutions that perpetuate the patriarchal mindset be heavily taxed and deprived of any public funding. Specifically, in my opinion, institutions that keep using theological rationalizations to exclude women from roles of religious authority (e.g., the Roman Catholic Church and most branches of Islam) are thereby encouraging many subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) forms of gender violence, from which stem all other forms of violence; thereby inducing great harm to humanity -- both men and women -- and the human habitat. These are my thoughts at the moment. I hope that this is the beginning of including the religious factor in this forum. Sincerely, Luis PS -- Below are some links that may be of interest. For some data on the global distribution of population growth: http://members.cox.net/slsturgi3/population_growth.gif http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c6/Growthbydevelopedvslessdeveloped.jpg/400px-Growthbydevelopedvslessdeveloped.jpg http://www.unep.org/GEO/geo1/fig/fig4_3.gif http://mindprod.com/images/worldpopulationgrowth.png http://www.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/~ttavk/weltkarten/population/population-growth.gif.gif http://images.wri.org/chart_wr9899_image002.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Population_growth_rate_world.PNG For more information and data on population issues, I recommend the following sources: http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/WPP2004/2004Highlights_finalrevised.pdf http://esa.un.org/unpp/ http://www.religiousconsultation.org/index.html --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. 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