So is your take that religion caused the issue or that a shift away from religion caused it?
Discussion
Simply put, the combination of
- Chrstianity with one god
- the king becoming God's representative, religious leader and protector of the parish, which would be the people of Norway
- the concept of heaven and hell
was the complete opposite of what they had prior to that. This lowered people's time preference in several ways, most notably be taking their focus away from the importance of protecting your own bloodline. When they didn't have any promise of eternal life after death, as it was with their former religion, their focus would naturally be on honor, grateness and the name of their own family.
It's kins of counterintuitive, because the Norse religion has been seen as something barbaric, while Christianity was more human.
I guess it matters a lot how you practice your religion.
But of course, the king wouls try to corrupt Christianity and remodel this religion into becoming political tools, "weaponizing" the religion you might said.
And this paved the way for weaponizing the money.
The rest is history, as they say.
Yes, it is strange how religion can serve either as a tool of liberation or of oppression, just like most social constructs and sources of power.
You would think that the idea of an afterlife would cause high time preference, since ideas like honor and greatness could theoretically persist for the individual. What value is a strong family after you pass, if individuals encounter oblivion, and therefore it makes no difference in the end?
Ironically, you could cast this as idolatry in a religious context: idolizing corruptible human authority figures. When you understand that "infinite, unknowable" God is the only source of truth, it forces you to be more skeptical of your fellow man.
Thus I think dogmatism and blind belief is the real culprit here. You see the same thing with the Science™ and secular fiat sheeple today.
Well put