How Religions Compete for Money, Power, and People

How Religions Compete for Money, Power, and People

Ask a question and participate in future episodes of the show.

Religion in the twenty-first century is alive and well across the world, despite its apparent decline in North America and parts of Europe. Vigorous competition between and within religious movements has led to their accumulating great power and wealth. Religions in many traditions have honed their competitive strategies over thousands of years. Today, they are big business; like businesses, they must recruit, raise funds, disburse budgets, manage facilities, organize transportation, motivate employees, and get their message out.

Economist Paul Seabright argues that religious movements are a special kind of business: they are platforms, bringing together communities of members who seek many different things from one another—spiritual fulfilment, friendship and marriage networks, even business opportunities. Their function as platforms is what has allowed religions to consolidate and wield power, which can be used for good and for harm.

Paul Seabright is a Professor of Economics in the Industrial Economics Institute and Toulouse School of Economics at the University of Toulouse, France. His new book is The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People.

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(637)

Why We Want to Believe in Aliens and Why We Still Haven't Found Them

Why We Want to Believe in Aliens and Why We Still Haven't Found Them

UFOs were once the stuff of tabloids and conspiracy theories. Today they're the subject of congressional hearings, Pentagon investigations, mainstream news coverage, and a new wave of claims about gov...

25 Aug 1h 13min

Is There a Second Arrow of Time? A New Law of Evolution, Information, and Complexity

Is There a Second Arrow of Time? A New Law of Evolution, Information, and Complexity

Why does the universe produce ever more elaborate forms, from atoms and minerals to cells, organisms, brains, technology, and civilization? The familiar laws of physics can explain much of what happen...

18 Aug 1h 18min

Why Good People Disagree About Right and Wrong

Why Good People Disagree About Right and Wrong

Why do reasonable people disagree so strongly about right and wrong? And why are we so quick to assume that people on the other side of a moral or political issue are irrational, selfish, ignorant, or...

11 Aug 1h 57min

Are We Building a God? AI, Superintelligence, and the Coming Singularity

Are We Building a God? AI, Superintelligence, and the Coming Singularity

Robert Wright joins Michael Shermer to discuss his new book, The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning, and why he thinks the AI revolution may be moving much faster than m...

5 Aug 1h 22min

Can You Trust Wikipedia? Co-Founder Larry Sanger on Wikipedia's Bias and Why He Was Banned

Can You Trust Wikipedia? Co-Founder Larry Sanger on Wikipedia's Bias and Why He Was Banned

Michael Shermer speaks with Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger shortly after Sanger was permanently banned from editing the site he helped create. Sanger tells the story of Wikipedia's founding, how it...

30 Juli 2h 3min

How to Think Clearly About a World in Crisis: Iran, China, Russia, and the West's Economic Pessimism

How to Think Clearly About a World in Crisis: Iran, China, Russia, and the West's Economic Pessimism

Michael Shermer speaks with political scientist Marlene Laruelle about Russia's turbulent transformation during the 1990s and the rise of Vladimir Putin, why the Kremlin so badly misjudged Ukraine, Ch...

18 Juli 1h 4min

The Truth About Sex Differences (Steve Stewart-Williams)

The Truth About Sex Differences (Steve Stewart-Williams)

How do men and women differ? Where do the differences come from? And how do they shape modern life? Drawing on a century of research and a billion years of evolution, Steve Stewart-Williams explains w...

11 Juli 55min

America at 250: What Did the Founders Get Right?

America at 250: What Did the Founders Get Right?

Michael Shermer makes the case that the U.S. Founding Fathers were not only steeped in Enlightenment values on which the Declaration of Independence was based, but they were also scientists searching ...

6 Juli 17min

Populärt inom Vetenskap

dumma-manniskor
p3-dystopia
allt-du-velat-veta
kapitalet-en-podd-om-ekonomi
ufo-sverige
medicinvetarna
svd-nyhetsartiklar
det-morka-psyket
rss-vetenskapsradion
sexet
bildningspodden
halsorevolutionen
rss-odla
naturmorgon
rss-spraket
rss-vetenskapsradion-2
paranormalt-med-caroline-giertz
ideer-som-forandrar-varlden
ufo-sverige-2
barnpsykologerna