Religion and Rational Choice: A Critique of Economic Explanations of Religious Behavior

Inspired by the work of Gary Becker, there have been a number of recent attempts to apply economic models to religious behavior and belief. This essay argues that while religious behavior may be rational in the most general sense of being reasoned and reasonable, it is not illuminated by the application of expectations of economic rationality or of rational choice models. Indeed, such an approach would be meaningful only in a society that was entirely secular.