Economics

What differentiates modern capitalist Economics from religion? Some would say that Economics is based in mathematics, unlike religion. The mathematics of capitalist Economics, however, like religion, are based on dogmatic prescriptions: prescriptions about the worth of currency and prescriptions about the conditions of exchange of goods and money.

Religions have various dogmatic currencies. The currency of Christianity is salvation. The currency of Islam is conversion and ascension to an afterlife. The currency of Judaism is racial ascendancy and prosperity. The currency of many Eastern religions is transmigration based on Karma.

Capitalist Economics are unconcerned with universal human justice or social equality. These are not currencies of modern capitalist Economics. In fact, universal human justice and social equality are feared in capitalist Economics. These ideals are labelled "socialist" or "communist" quite readily by those who are acolytes of capitalist Economics. There is a priesthood of capitalist Economics, the Economists, who like their religious counterparts are divided by theories and schisms. They are simply unified in their adoration of money and wealth accumulation as the cure of all human ills.

I suppose humanism, as I see it, has a currency. True human progress is the currency of my humanism. I strongly believe that shared individual humanist practice, a practice of self-knowledge and promotion of health and peace for others, is the way to promote universal human justice and social equality. A world peopled by humanists would need no monetary currency to guide its choices. Every social decision would be based on peace, health and well being. The methods for attaining these would start with the premise that every human being has equal worth and equal rights to health, education, housing and satisfying work for the common good.

Economics and other forms of science are still restricted by their reactive models. They are based in fix-it models, which react to observed micro-realities. My view of humanism is proactive. By starting with the promotion of individual physical and mental health for all human beings as a premise, based on what is known by science now, human beings would develop exponentially as a species. Science would advance faster with more active and educated minds to power it. The obstacle to reaching our potential as a species is our misplaced confidence in the power of money to advance us.