The Rise of Capitalism

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Benjamin Sutter's new book is about religion and the rise of capitalism. He says society will have to re-think how it works if robots take over many aspects of our lives. His sons don't read newspapers because they can't remember what page something was on, he says. And young people are impatient with pausing to recall dates or names that we can't Recall in five seconds.

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.