Usually this section of the site is reserved for my essays, but this one had to be included here since I wish I'd written it.

Religion and Economics deftly frames neo-liberal economics as a modern religion. Framing is an extremely important cognitive tool that allows us to see through the haze of habit and get a clearer vision of the world as it is, not as we've become habituated to see it.

If there was something on this planet that stands in need re-framing above all else, it is neoliberalism, a system of economics that concentrates massive wealth, steals the resources of the global poor, caused the current economic crisis and is directly responsible for most of the world's ecological disasters.

John B. Cobb Jr.'s essay, while a bit long-winded, point by point compares the phenomenon of neoliberalism that bears a striking resemblance to the world's religions in the "glorious" principles it espouses, the commitment it requires of its believers and the worship of its deity above all else.

This is an extremely useful re-framing of the economics of unregulated growth, not just because we're all feeling the disastrous effects of its methodology, but that we assists in a complete paradigm shift of its essence, in order to help us break free from the spell it has so thoroughly cast on this planet.

Simply put, economics is a religion we need to stop worshiping before its too late. Reading Cobb's essay helps realize we're in a temple of someone else's making and its time to walk out.