In Europe, God Is (Not) Dead
The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating article on Christianity and supply-side economics on their weekend front page. A few groups attribute “God’s tentative return to Europe” to the laws of economics:
Some scholars and Christian activists, however, are pushing a more controversial explanation: the laws of economics. As centuries-old churches long favored by the state lose their monopoly grip, Europe’s highly regulated market for religion is opening up to leaner, more-aggressive religious “firms.” The result, they say, is a supply-side stimulus to faith.
“Monopoly churches get lazy,” says Eva Hamberg, a professor at Lund University’s Centre for Theology and Religious Studies and co-author of academic articles that, based on Swedish data, suggest a correlation between an increase in religious competition and a rise in church-going. Europeans are deserting established churches, she says, “but this does not mean they are not religious.”
While I’m not necessarily arguing the validity of the article’s hypothesis, I do appreciate the outside-the-box thinking exemplified by these scholars and activists. This sort of unique analysis is exactly the sort of mindset that can really help you strike it big in the stock market. By looking at different perspectives and finding interesting connections, you can find fundamental causes and effects and use them to your advantage. In fact, it is the truly controversial findings - if you can validate them - that do not get integrated within mainstream investing that are the richest gold mines.