Economists Have a World View

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Sole's argument is that religious thinking was a very important contributor to the origins of western economics. But these people were celebrities in their own lifetime, we know lots about them biographically. And one thing we know for sure is that these were not religiously committed individuals. Hume was an outspoken opponent of any kind of organized religion. Most people, including me, think he was an atheist. Smith was more private about his personal religious beliefs. There's no reason to think that he had any deep religious commitment. As an american, i would think of him comparably to people like benjamin franklin and thomas jefferson. We think of them as deists to day. So

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.