Economists have been accused (rightly, I think) of being imperialists in terms of their scope of research. One of the more interesting foray is that of religion. The economics of religion - as this fledging field is known is relatively unknown outside economics. Economics is primarily concerned with the study of the allocation of scarce resources. Man is a being with finite resources - the most obvious being his/her biological lifespan. While his biological life is finite, his life after death may not be necessarily so. Thus, in a typical economics model of a religious man, he/she allocates time and other resources across time which comprises life and afterlife. Religious activities are thus analyzed much like any other activities except the benefits (i.e. utility in economics jargon) derived from such activities accrue in this life (e.g. communal belonging) and afterlife (e.g. heaven).
Can we rationalize religion in such a manner? Is it good enough to assume people undertake such optimization without them realizing so i.e. ala a Chicago-type approach (Milton Friedman and methodology)? Ask any religious person, he/she is unlikely to say his/her belief in God is a utilitarian one.
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