What's causing it? The rise of Individual-choice norms

Abstract

Many factors are contributing to secularization, including reactions against fundamentalists’ unconditional support for authoritarian politicians, against the Roman Catholic Church’s long history of covering up child abuse, and against terrorism by religious extremists. But one generally overlooked reason for accelerating secularization is the decline of pro-fertility norms. All major religions encourage these norms, which help societies replace their populations when facing high infant mortality and low life expectancy. These norms require people to suppress strong drives, but with low infant mortality and high life expectancy they are no longer are needed. After an intergenerational time lag, pro-fertility norms are giving way to individual-choice norms supporting gender equality and tolerance of divorce, abortion, and homosexuality. Pro-fertility norms are so strongly linked with traditional religious worldviews that abandoning them undermines religiosity.