Why do church attending people have more children the less religious people?

Question

The graph in the link shows a correlation between church attendance and family size in European and North American nations.
http://www.nationmaster.com/plot/rel_chu_att/peo_hou_wit_mor_tha_5_peo/flag

Answer 1

Some religions teach that birth control should not be used. Some teach that women should not work outside the home, but should instead devote their time and energy to raising children.

However, this could be a spurious or indirect relationship. For example, maybe it has something to do with age (older people are more likely to attend church than are younger people, and would also be more likely to have children). Or maybe it has something to do with the definition of "church" (maybe some people attend religious services that aren't called "church"). Or maybe it has something to do with sexuality (some churches are not welcoming of homosexuals, and homosexuals often would not have children). Maybe there is a racial, ethnic, or class effect. This relationship between two variables doesn't necessarily tell us anything about causality. We would need to conduct further statistical tests with more variables in order to determine possible causal relationships, if any.

Answer 2

It's probably a number of reasons like no birth control, the belief it's their marital duty. The Christianity religion says women are to be subservient to their husbands so I guess they can't say no to sex. A lot of religious people only care about their personal salvation they are not concerned about issues such as overpopulation. I would also guess some do it just for the matching outfits they wear to church.

Answer 3

I am not sure of which religion you speak. But there are "some" religions, that don't believe in birth control, and there are some religions that believe that they are supposed to have large families (this is a womans duty). I have never noticed any large families at our church, maybe the most has 4 children.

Answer 4

That's such a rough correlation. Remember that correlation doesn't imply causation. It might or might not be a coincidence. For example, there's a positive correlation between shoe size and SAT scores. Does this mean there's causation? Probably not. (Yes, it's true. Babies and younger children will tend to score lower.)

Answer 5

Because their religious leaders brainwash them into having more children, in order to keep the churches supplied with potential believers.

Answer 6

Some religious denounce the use of birth control. I know that is why older catholic families had so many children.

Answer 7

Probably because church folk place literal belief in the Biblical injunction, "Be fruitful and multiply."

Secondly, they've been held back in sexual expression throughout their youth and are trying to make up for lost time.

Answer 8

Becuase they are obeying the Biblical command to be fruitful and multiply!

Answer 9

because certain religions don't believe in birth control. they also believe that the purpose of marriage and sex is for procreation.