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The rational choice theorists of religion have attempted to build up a body of transcultural, universalistic generalizations, beginning with basic axioms of human rationality. The problematics of the perspective's analytical focus on one type of rationality are made evident by a comparison with Max Weber's types of action. The influence of the American religious experience is evident in the perspective's formulations and explanations, and conceptual and theoretical problems arise when the perspective is applied to non-wester religion. The relationship between otherworldly rewards and supernatural beings proposed by the theory has to be modified with respect to eastern religions. Monopolism and pluralism take on different meanings in eastern religious contexts, and variations in state regulations have different consequences from those in the west. Like rational choice theorists in other areas of study, rational choice theorists of religion have attempted to build up a body of generalizations which are transcultural and transhistorical. They have adopted methodological individualism, and beginning with the axiom that individuals choose in accord with what is of optimal utility for them, they have followed a logico-deductive mode of theorizing characterized by a high level of formularization of definitions and propositions. They write that they are perfectly aware that individuals do not always act rationally, but they claim that their simplifying assumptions and ideal-typical models can generate high-level explanations (Stark and Finke 2000:36-41; lannaccone 1997).
Stephen Sharot (Tue,) studied this question.