Religion and morality are indispensable supports of prosperity

George Washington's Farewell Address of 1796 is an often overlooked document that warrants occassional revisiting.

One passage in particular seems pertinent, emphasis added:

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.

Retail religion gets a bad name through bad actors and through noxious obsessions. But there is a beauty and grace in religion seen in individuals and, at moments, in all institutionalized religion, moments where humility and awe open our eyes to aspects beyond ourselves.

But the bad actors have tainted the pool and it is indisputable that there is a rise in secularism around the world, particularly in Europe. But with that rise it is also notable that there is a corresponding decline in both family and fertility. This is usually ascribed to straightforward economic conditions. The wealthier people become, the more confident they are in their own power and independence. Greater income means there is a higher comparative cost to the strictures of any constraining religion - why go to church when you can be watching a show on your wide screen TV in your entertainment room? With wealth, the cost of children, both in terms of money outflows and in terms of foregone (self-serving) opportunities, increases. Why put up with another person in your orbit, why commit to caring for them through thick and thin, when that constrains your own activities?

I subscribe to the economic explanation. But I am not sure it is the whole explanation. I have no opposition to people's declared atheism or agnosticism. We all travel our own paths of discovery. But the irrelevance of religion to an increasing percentage of the population does seem to have a causally deleterious effect on the overall health of culture. The decline in conscious pursuit of morality is one long term issue. The more immediate impact arises from the decline in fertility. It is almost as if, without religion, people as a cultural community have nothing further to live for. The fertility rate plummets, their numbers decline from one generation to the next, and soon they disappear from history's stage.