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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (30431)	5/22/2002 11:32:43 PM
From: Zeev Hed	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Someone posted an interesting essay by Mark Twain about that thesis, I believe, a response to a letter by an America Jew seeking to understand why so many people hate the Jews and for so long, he never brought up that "control" things, but assume they do, they surely do it "by the book". (g). Zeev

To: Ilaine who wrote (30431)	5/23/2002 10:41:44 AM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

I think these days most agree with Max Weber that Protestant regions had multiple advantages over Catholic regions with respect to capitalism. The debate within sociology has not been about that; rather it's about the causation issue. Does religion, any religion, have any strong, first order, causative effect on economics? Not settled; probably never will be settled. Most arguments, however, that make sense to me, hedge the argument, nuance it, if you please, to add multiple variables and then find they cannot weight them. If, for instance, you break religious belief systems down into certain components likely to have some effect on economic activity, rank religions by their presence or absence; then add in the presence of a monetary system, trading systems, certain urban settlements as hot beds of economic innovation, etc., you can list all the likely relevant factors. But, without some sort of serious comparative analysis frame, you cannot weight them. And that's the trick. Sorry to go on so long.