Too little, too late...

One of my blog readers responded to my March 24 posting about religion, economy and overpopulation and says that “before accusing religions, it would be appropriate to question the level of education and training of individuals and in particular that of women. Experience shows that when knowledge increases, birthrate falls. It is indeed a matter of economy and wealth distribution, since in poverty, even more so in extreme poverty in which billions of human live, education remain very difficult to access.”

While I agree to a point with the comments, I believe that it remains a chicken-and-the-egg dilemma in the sense that many organized religions are run by men who don't encourage women participation, unless pressure from the faithfuls becomes untenable. These same male-led religions (Islam, Catholicism, Mormonism) in an effort to increase their ranks are overtly encouraging overpopulation by refusing or discouraging any form of contraceptive, thus denying their followers any significant economic improvements.

Extreme dogma used by these religions remains highly influential, encourage well above-normal fertility as a way to expand their influence and the persons in the front lines who pay for that are still the women who are held back by the flock of kids they must care for. Widespread education in the developed world is what has forced religion to become more women-friendly, but this was not a unilateral, gratuitous gesture from organized religions. In fact, when they're reluctantly have to adapt to changing times, it's because they're forced to and whatever reform they've been bringing never fail to be “too little, too late.”