SOCIETY AND RELIGION

Society and Religion

Answers the Questions

Answer 1: Religion and the Economy

One could argue that in contemporary society the primary impact of economics does not arise from its descriptive, scientific role, but rather from its normative role in setting policy objectives and framing the subsequent debate. In a sense, economics has become a kind of religion in itself with a constituent belief structure. It is important to distinguish between the academic discipline of economics and the ideology of economics that has built up around it. The neoclassical paradigm has had a profound effect on our ability to explain and predict economic behavior at both the micro and macro levels. At the same time, in its normative application it has become a dominant ideology, providing an unquestioned moral basis for evaluating policy and individual behavior in an otherwise secular society. At one time communists were the most extreme ideologues in the economic arena; today their proselytizing role has been filled by free market fundamentalists. In this economics-as-religion worldview, “free” and “unfettered” markets are set up as the only “natural” state, with departures requiring substantial justification. Trade and globalization are good and proper, regardless of the magnitude of the uncompensated injury assumed by the poor and other marginalized groups. This theme examines the ways that economics resembles a religious belief system. One salient issue for this subgroup to engage is how the ideology of economics works in this globalized world and how its ethics have replaced those based on religious beliefs. Such a perspective adds to the broader discussion of poverty by addressing the ideology of the system that produces and sustains poverty around the world. The World Bank, for example, has been sharply criticized in recent years (and by established economists and insiders such as Joseph Stiglitz) for pursuing policies that respond to ideological demands economics as religion. One could argue that in contemporary society the primary impact of economics does not arise from its descriptive, scientific role, but rather from its normative role in setting policy objectives and framing the subsequent debate. In a sense, economics has become a kind of religion in itself with a constituent belief structure. It is important to distinguish between the academic discipline of economics and the ideology of economics that has built up around it. The neoclassical paradigm has had a profound effect on our ability to explain and predict economic behavior at both the micro and macro levels. At the same time, in its normative application it has become a dominant ideology, providing an unquestioned moral basis for evaluating policy and individual behavior in an otherwise secular society.

At one time communists were the most extreme ideologues in the economic arena; today their proselytizing role has been filled by free market fundamentalists. In this economics-as-religion worldview, “free” and “unfettered” markets are set up as the only “natural” state, with departures requiring substantial justification. Trade and globalization are good and proper, regardless of the magnitude of the uncompensated injury assumed by the poor and ...