It may seem like a stretch to blame religion for worsening the world's financial meltdown, but it's not. The entire conservative free-market approach to government is based on a flawed understanding human nature. The Creationist viewpoint is not just a religion, it is also a way of thinking that permits and encourages illogical thinking. Religion teaches people to reject facts in favor of opinion and hearsay.
Worse, the Creationist approach discards the most valuable tool available to an economist: An accurate, scientific understanding of human behavior. An economist who rejects Evolution Science also rejects the profound insights that come with it.
One of the cool things about Evolution Science is that the principles apply to a wide variety of interacting systems, not just biological life. Any time you have competing, mutable entities, whether they are corporations, memes (ideas), nations, or plants and animals, a clear understanding of the principles of evolution can give amazing insight into the way these entities interact.
To those who understand evolution, topics like predation, competition, and especially parasitism, are no mystery at all. When we view banks, brokerages and insurance companies as evolving, mutating memeplexes, that compete with each other in the classic "survival of the fittest" battle, we can predict certain things. We can predict that, in an unregulated marketplace, unethical (but successful) memeplexes will evolve. We can predict that "parasitic" (but successful) memeplexes such as "derivative funds" that are nothing more than quasi-legal casinos, will evolve. We can predict that the "tragedy of the commons," where each individual makes decisions that, collectively, hurt everyone, will be an everyday occurance.
By contrast, a Creationist rejects this sort of thinking. Or perhaps a better way to say it: A Creationist is incapable of this deep and profound insight into the financial world. By rejecting evolution, they reject the insights that go with it. The religious explanation of nature is simplistic: God created the world and its plants and creatures, and created humans to look over everything. Evil was introduced when Adam and Eve succumbed to the serpent's temptation. Morals are God-given, and are enumerated in the scriptures.
Religion offers no insight into human behavior, and even less into the behavior of complex social structures such as banks, insurance companies and stock brokerages. It is worse than silent ... it offers only ineffective solutions, such as prayer and wishful thinking.
Any useful model of the world economy must be based on an understanding of evolutionary systems. Anything else is just a fairy tale. Given that the Republican Bush Administration is filled with Creationists, is it any surprise that they can't understand the economy?
So, as you look in dismay at your stock portfolio, our the declining value of your home, or maybe you even lost your job, you can chalk up one more way that Creationists are damaging society.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
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5 comments:
Dear readers -- I am no longer blogging and after leaving these blogs open for two years have finally stopped accepting comments due to spammers. Thanks for your interest. If you'd like to write to me, click on the "Contact" link at the top. Thanks! -- CJ.
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So....you don't actually have any evidence to back up your claim. You sound like you have the Anti-Religion Virus. Symptoms include not being able to clearly reason or rationally express why religion is so bad or produce...you know...actual evidence.
ReplyDeleteIts a bit of stretch this theory even for a died in the wool atheist such as me!!
ReplyDeleteI put it down to high levels of consumer debt coupled with greedy banks lending vast sums to people that can't afford credit.
WC, you're right about the causes, but look behind what you said. Why were banks able to lend vast sums of money to unqualified people? Because the conservatives don't believe in regulation. Why don't they believe in regulation? Because they have a fundamental misunderstanding of the principles that shape evolving, mutating entities that compete with each other for survival.
ReplyDeleteThe credit crisis was just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. I've been reading about things like "naked short selling," which is nothing more than legalized gambling and should be completely illegal, but the Bush administration turned a blind eye to it. These were responsible for a huge amount of the volitility and fear that gripped the stock market, and have NOTHING to do with the original purpose of stock trading, which is to supply cash to companies in return for equity.
And the insurance business? There's some scary stuff going on there. There is one type of insurance that pays if a stock's price drops below a threshold. It's completely unregulated, so people buy insurance WITHOUT buying the stock. The total value of these policies exceeds the United States gross national product by a huge margin. Again: legalized gambling, with stakes larger than some of the world's biggest economies. Only a misguided, ignorant politician would let these practices go unchecked.
Ryan, didn't you ever read C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters? There's a chapter in there about how sarcasm, cynicism and denigrating other people, without contributing anything constructive to the dialog yourself, is one of the devil's best tricks for claiming souls.
ReplyDeleteC.S. Lewis is one of Christianity's best-known apologists, and influential writers. The Screwtape Letters is a fantastic synopsis of human weakness, temptation, and morality. You'd probably enjoy it, and I hope you can actually learn something about how sarcasm and cynicism are damaging to your soul.
By the way, since you don't seem to understand the basic premise of this blog, let me explain it plainly: It's an opinion blog, not a scientific paper.
didn't you ever read C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters?
ReplyDeleteRead it about 4 times and loved it.
without contributing anything constructive to the dialog yourself, is one of the devil's best tricks for claiming souls.
You made a ridiculous claim with no evidence which was ironic since you claim intellectual superiority over religious people. I think I added plenty to the dialogue.
I hope you can actually learn something about how sarcasm and cynicism are damaging to your soul.
Sarcasm is not damaging to my soul. It has its place. There are plenty of examples of well-used sarcasm in the Bible. I felt the need to use it. I suspect you didn't like it because it proved my point, that you don't have any actual evidence.
By the way, since you don't seem to understand the basic premise of this blog, let me explain it plainly: It's an opinion blog, not a scientific paper.
So this post about the economy was an opinion piece? I don't think you presented it that way.
Anyways, I get the idea. You get to say whatever ridiculous thing you want to say about religion or Christianity and you don't have to back it up at all. But then you'll pride yourself on how much smarter you are simply by being an atheist.
By the way, you should read C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. You may learn that not all Christians are as dumb as you think.