\u201cThe Divine Economy\u201d is more tactful than Mr Lehrer\u2014though not quite as much fun. The book\u2019s scope is big. So too, alas, are many of the words. Sentences such as \u201cprobabilistic models of cognition assume that human cognition can be explained in terms of a rational Bayesian framework\u201d leave the reader wishing for lines that are, like those in \u201cThe Vatican Rag\u201d, a little snappier, while his idea that religions are \u201cplatforms\u201d is at times more confusing than clarifying.<\/p>\n
An obvious riposte to all this religious analysis is: who cares? It is 2024, not 1524. God, as Friedrich Nietzsche stated, is dead. But such secularist complacency is misplaced and wrong. The West may be less Christian\u2014but the rest of the world is not. Between 1900 and 2020, the proportion of Africans who are Christian rose from under 9% to almost half; the proportion who are Muslim rose from around a third to over 40%.<\/p>\n
Even in secular countries, faith remains powerful. In America in 2022, Roe v Wade was overturned thanks, in part, to decades of campaigning by evangelicals and Catholics. Non-believers dabble too. Jordan Peterson, a Canadian academic, performs to stadiums with a talk titled \u201cWe Who Wrestle With God\u201d and garnishes his books with statements such as \u201cOur consciousness participates in the speaking forth of Being.\u201d God might wish he were dead when He hears such things. He is not. <\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n One study found that in 2016 American faith-based organisations had revenues of $378bn\u2014more than the revenues of Apple and Microsoft combined. <\/p>\n A new book explains why God may be great, but his full-year results are greater https:\/\/t.co\/XjOOczvX8g<\/a> 👇<\/p>\n — The Economist (@TheEconomist) May 14, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n