Is the End of the World Coming Soon?

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The psychologist leon fessenger red that question with his book, when prophecy fails. He famously went to the top of the mountain with the local group in 19 54, december 20 first. This was u f ocult that thought the mother ship was going to come. And of course, the ship didn't comeandte he thought the members might just go homend and rebuild their lives. But no, they doubled down on their belief. So he called that cognitive dissonance. That's one explanation psychologically, when you have a conflict between your belief in the facts, you spen doctor the facts tofit to keep the belief alive. We're seeing a little bit of this

In episode 162 of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael speaks with one of the nation’s preeminent experts on economic policy, Benjamin Friedman, about his new book Religion and the Rise of Capitalism — a major reassessment of the foundations of modern economic thinking that explores the profound influence of an until-now unrecognized force — religion.

Critics of contemporary economics complain that belief in free markets — among economists as well as many ordinary citizens — is a form of religion. And, it turns out, that in a deeper, more historically grounded sense there is something to that idea. Contrary to the conventional historical view of economics as an entirely secular product of the Enlightenment, Benjamin Friedman demonstrates that religion exerted a powerful influence from the outset.