Shall
the Religious Inherit the Earth?: The Demographic
Contradictions of Liberal Capitalism
A Study in Religion, Demography and Politics
|
A Study in Religion, Demography and Politics |
Dr. Eric P. Kaufmann, Birkbeck
College, University of London, UK
e.kaufmann@bbk.ac.uk
Summary
This
project argues that the population of the developed world will
become increasingly religious and conservative in the long-term
Books
Findings available in a new book, Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth (London: Profile Books, 25 March 2010). Hear a podcast interview with George Miller of Blackwell's on the book. See a youtube video of Eric's talk at the RSA on 15 April 2010
Upcoming edited book: Political Demography: identity, conflict and institutions, edited by J. A. Goldstone, Eric Kaufmann and Monica Duffy Toft. (Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave-MacMillan, 2010). Also in this book (with V. Skirbekk), "'Go Forth and Multiply': the Politics of Religious Demography".
Reviews of the Book
New Humanist (cover story by Caspar Melville), 'Battle of the Babies', March/April issue. Chosen as an 'article of note' in Arts and Letters Daily, early April.
15 March - Daily Telegraph (Ed West) - 'Atheism is doomed: the contraceptive Pill is secularism's cyanide tablet'
21 March - Sunday Times (Dominic Lawson), 'Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth'
22-28 March - Big Issue Scotland (cover story), 'God's Comeback'
31 March - London Metro (Robert Murphy), 'Shall The Religious Inherit The Earth?: Eric Kaufmann may have the answer'
4 April - Financial Times (John Lloyd), 'Abraham's Children on the March'
April - Literary Review (Douglas Murray), 'We're All Doomed'
4 April - Theos (Nick Spencer) - 'Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth'
9 April - Independent (Ziauddin Sardar) - 'Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth'
17 April - Toronto Globe and Mail (Doug Saunders) - 'Swamped by Religion'
18 April - Morning Star (Michael Boncza) - 'Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth'
Interviews, Podcasts, Articles of Mine, and Commentary on the Book
17 October 2009: 'Only an atheist can be a good Christian; only a Christian can be a good atheist', Debate on Ernst Bloch's Atheism in Christianity, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities, London (podcasted event)
4 March 2010, 7pm Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London: Appearance at Jewish Book Week, on panel with Dominique Moisi and John Kampfner on panel on 'Threats to our Democracy'. Details at: http://www.jewishbookweek.com/2010/democracy-at-risk.php [podcast of debate here]
'Europe's Muslim Future', Eric Kaufmann, Prospect, April
Friendly Atheist (interview), Hemant Mehta, 19 March
'Rise of the Fundamentalists', Slugger O' Toole, 22 March
Mercator.net (interview), April
'Mormons: ‘We don’t want Bible bashers' (Alice Fishburn and Hattie Garlick), Sunday Times, 1 April
Belief.net (Rod Dreher) - 'The (very) Religious Shall Inherit the Earth', 2 April
Sunday Star Times (New Zealand) -
Kenan Malik.com, 'Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth', 9 April
Media Appearances and Talks
Book Launch & reception: 25 March 2010, room 403, 6pm, Birkbeck College, Malet Street, London
28 March: BBC Radio Scotland (religious affairs programme)
29 March: BBC World Service, World Update, 11-12 AM
1 April, 11-12 am: Today Show with Pat Kenny, RTE (Ireland) Radio 1. Hear interview podcast.
7 April, 4-430 pm : Appearance on BBC Radio 4 'Thinking Allowed' with Tariq Ramadan and Rebecca Goldstein
14 April, 4 pm: Afternoon Show with Sean Moncrieff, RTE Radio (Ireland)
15 April: Debate on the book with Dominic Lawson of The Sunday Times at RSA, London, 6 pm. Moderated by Laurie Taylor and co-sponsored by New Humanist magazine Youtube clip of event
5 May - 630 pm - Reading Public Library
10 June - 8 pm - Iona Institute, Dublin
11 July - 11 am - South Place Ethical Society, Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square London
Recent
'Europe's Muslim Future', Eric Kaufmann, Prospect, April
10-13 March 2010: 'Sacralization by Stealth?: The Religious Consequences of Low Fertility in Europe', for conference on "Causes, Consequences & Responses to Low Fertility,” hosted by the Social Trends Institute, Barcelona
Working Papers, Media & Articles
Media (Own Articles and Others' Coverage of My Research):
'A Nightmare for Richard Dawkins: statistics show that atheists are a dying breed', Ed West, Daily Telegraph (UK), 18 September 2009
'The Changing Face of Israel' (co-authored with R. Cincotta), Foreign Policy (web exclusive), June 2009
'The Global War for Souls', a review of John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, 'God is Back', Prospect, June 2009
Anthony Gottlieb, 'Faith Equals Fertility', Intelligent Life (Economist), Winter 2008
Commentary on my November 2006 Prospect/Newsweek article, 'Breeding for God' at Richard Dawkins.net (2008)
Review of Philip Jenkins' God's Continent, Prospect, November 2007
'Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth', Jewish Quarterly, Autumn 2007
Ross Douthat, 'The Crisis of Faith', Atlantic Monthly, July/August 2007
'Faith's Comeback', Newsweek, 7-13 November 2006
'Breeding for God', Prospect, November 2006 issue
'Shifting Demography', BBC Radio 4 'Thinking Allowed', 4 October 2006
Project Notes
Former ESRC-Funded Project within Understanding Population Trends and Processes: A Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (UPTAP) Programme, 2005-6. Link to Original UPTAP programme specification
Read full summary Read/ Download Full Proposal
Formerly a component of the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs , Belfer Center for Science in International Affairs, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 2008-9
Resources:
Eric Kaufmann's Political Demography Resource
Reading List of Relevant Articles
Channel 4 film: The Battle for Israel's Soul
film: Demographic Winter: the decline of the human family
Links:
Michael Blume's website on religion and reproduction
Evolutionary Religious Studies (David Sloan Wilson's site)
Evolution of Religion (Richard Sosis' site)
Sci-Log: the Biology of Religion
Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR) at Baylor University
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