I don't think the religions preach what people want to hear. They built procreation into their belief system to make sure they will have bigger and bigger adherents. It works and many of those religions are much larger today than others without procreation preaching.
Religions allow you to force a rule-set on your neighbors and limit your descendants behavior, long after they reached adolescence.
I would guess for a middle-aged person, in constant silent fear of loosing it all with one mighty divorce - or drug accident of son/daughter - this sounds attractive.
