The global human population will increase by 2.4 billion to 2088, according to the UN. Birth rates are high in some parts of the world, leading to continued population growth. In Africa and parts of Asia, and within Muslim countries and communities, religiosity promotes high birth rates. This role of religion could, however, potentially be reversed.
Religious immigrants to the West have high birth rates, the British political scientist Eric Kaufmann emphasized in his book Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? (2010). Two years later, the psychologist Jonathan Haidt published The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. He and Kaufmann both argued that religion is hard to eliminate through rational arguments, as evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and many others have tried. According to Haidt, religiosity is part of inherited behavior that reinforces social cooperation among competing groups of Homo sapiens.
Below, religion refers to belief in supernatural power, including spirituality and spirits that influence our attitudes and actions. Animism long dominated among hunters and gatherers via souls and spirits (deceased people, parts of nature, etc.). As agriculture evolved globally, larger hierarchical communities adopted gods to rule over them (monotheism).
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