Author: Robert J. Muscat
Robert J. Muscat is a former chief economist of the U.S. Agency for International Development and consultant for the World Bank and several United Nations agencies. He is now an independent researcher. This article is drawn from his forthcoming book, Thinking about Believing: Religion and Violence.
Faith and the Pandemic
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, we are being inundated by analyses and speculation about its effects on the world economy, political campaigning, democratic norms, civil liberties, social solidarity, the viability of regimes of fragile states, ongoing armed conflicts, camps of refugees and displaced persons, business practices, income inequality, provision of safety nets, the …
The Contingency of Belief: Present Beliefs Stem from Past Happenstance
Believers today ready to defend, preach, proselytize, or even kill and die for their faith are likely dedicating their lives to ideas they hold by accident.