Originally Posted by Idaho_Shooter
Religion, especially the hope of a paradise waiting after death was a powerful thing to a slave population.

Until very recent times, even those people not in chains were enslaved by their environment. They spent most every waking moment tending their flocks, gathering herbs and roots, or hunting meat. As soon as they could walk at their Mother's side, they began helping in the gathering of food. Or the little ones took their dogs and tended flocks and chased away predators.

Religion and the thought of Heaven gave them hope of some reward after their unending suffering with labor, hunger, pestilence and early death.

Today, in developed nations, there is much less need for such. It is a natural progression, just as is the move toward smaller families.



It is a function of enlightenment, but at the same time becoming enlightened seems also to mean becoming benighted. I mean, materialism, which is the default metaphysical belief of the cognoscenti today is so obviously self-refuting that one has to be willfully blind not to see it and how many of societies leading intellectuals are Marxists when marxism is such an obvious failure. So there is something more an work, a rebellion against God, or perhaps a hatred of the very possibility of the divine. I don't know. Just musing. As far as decreased family size, yes, that is a natural by-product of industrialization and the move away from agriculture which required larger families and of course technological advances in birth control.

Tarquin