Religion is the unproductive intellectual sphere. It is negative in that unverified concepts are used to influence the believers perception of events. Religious beliefs are not described here as false because (A) many deal with questions that cannot be verified true or false, (B) out of respect for believers and (C) because one never knows when one will be caught in a fox-hole. Nevertheless, the point is that just as it is easier to kill than feed, in a primitive setting it is easier to control through unverified concepts than it is through verified concepts.

Religion develops earlier than the economy or science because it is negative but it finishes its development after the state because it is intellectual. This means control is exercised through controlling the perception rather than directly controlling the environment.

Steps in the development of religion - in the theoretical system.

1. Chief - Specialist

2. Theocratic State - Educational Institution 3. Independent Thinker and Teacher - Independent Competitive Specialist

4. Religion Founder - Individual Ownership Institution 5. Proselytizing Supporters - Dependent Competitive Specialist

6. Catholic Church - Educational Institution for Dependent Competitive Specialists

7. Protestant Reformation - Despecialization

8. Civil Liberty - Egalitarian Ownership Institution

1. Chief - Specialist

As mentioned before the bigman and the chief use all available means for holding control and thus are specialists for all the four spheres. The evidence of bigmen and chiefs using religion to control their subjects is available from the study of contemporary tribal societies as well as historical and archaeological sources. The chiefdoms of Hawaii were particularly good examples.

2. Theocratic State - Educational Institution

Like the chief, the theocratic state embodied all four specializations. When the military specialists took over the state, the temple lost many of its political and economic functions but retained its religious and scientific functions. Therefore as the state moved forward to more sophisticated institutional forms, religion maintained its educational form. On the other hand, religious dogma changed to reflect the changes in the state. Warrior gods replaced fertility gods, and the domain of individual gods expanded and contracted with the ebb and flow of military fortune. As empires expanded, the religions did not remain local but they were limited to the political boundaries of the state. Therefore the religious institutions were monopolies. In conclusion, the theocratic state and the temple religions that survived its replacement by the military state were educational monopolies under the control of the state, but also protected by the state.

3. Independent Thinker and Teacher - Independent Competitive Specialist

The theology of the ancient battlefield was that when kingdoms fought the gods of those kingdoms also fought. The victory of the god was reflected by victory on the battlefield. The losers could in good conscience accept the conquerors religion knowing that their god had been defeated. When the Jews were brought into Babylonian captivity, they did not accept the defeat of their God. Quite the contrary, they asserted that theirs was the only god and that he was punishing them, his chosen people, for their sins. To maintain their religion far removed from the temple, they chose teachers, called rabbis, to lead then in the study of the Tora.

The story of Judaism's transformation from a national temple religion to a modern religion is important not only because Judaism is so important to western religion but also because it is a good example of a widespread phenomena.

As civilization recovered from the barbarian conquests and political turmoil of the beginning of the first millenium B.C., there was a great flowering of philosophical and religious thought. The political turmoil had destroyed many of the old temple religions. Furthermore some of the new empire builders tolerated indigenous religions, thereby allowing religious minorities. Thus religions and philosophical systems were left to compete by intellectual means. Competition encouraged relatively rational systems that could win converts even against the weight of tradition.

Another major change that encouraged competition was the alphabet. For example, the Jews in Babylon built their religion around the Tora which was written with the alphabet. Of course the alphabet had been in existence for almost a millenium before the major religions were founded in the sixth century B.C. But the spread of the alphabet was slow. The alphabet reached Greece, for example, just a few centuries before the great religions were founded and the flowering of Greek philosophy. The Jews had the alphabet much earlier but they were also precocious in producing independent thinkers, the prophets. The alphabet helped to break the monopoly of the priest-scribes over literacy. This was very important to the independent thinkers and teachers who were leading the new religions and philosophical movements.

There are many examples of this new specialist, the independent thinker and teacher. The Jewish prophets criticized society, the state and the temple priests. In India, independent teachers established themselves separately from the temple religion. In Greece, the sophists and early philosophers, such as Socrates, taught and thought independently from organized religion. The founders of the great religions were particularly successful examples of the independent thinker and teacher.

Before discussing religious founders, it is important that we note a great service provided by the independent thinker and teacher. Egalitarian ownership institutions are like headless monsters: when everyone rules, no one rules. Thus it was very important that Democracy received help in organizing itself from the independent thinker. A prime example is Solon who wrote an early Athenian Constitution. Even after democracy was founded, great orators, Pericles for example, provided the leadership necessary to make Democracy work.

The independent thinkers and teachers made essential contributions to democracy, but democracy also made essential contributions to the independent thinker and teacher and thus to the religious system. Democracy provides a very special market for the services of the independent thinker. For example, Socrates and Plato explored questions of virtue carefully. Because democracy dilutes the connection between the individual voters decision and the effect of that decision on the voter, democracy makes questions of what is virtue other than the practical particularly relevant.

The death of Socrates shocked his followers. The loss of independence suffered by the Greek City State at the hands of larger powers such as Macedon shocked Greek thinkers in general. The result was a turning inward to the self and away from the political. The virtue that was implicit in democracy was internalized. The combination of this tradition and the Jewish tradition led to Christianity, the most relevant example of our next topic.

But before going on, it is important to note that the mutually beneficial relationship between the egalitarian ownership institution of the state, democracy, and the independent competitive specialist of religion, the independent thinker and teacher, is an example of a general phenomena. In chapter six, a similar relationship between the egalitarian ownership institution of religion, civil liberty, and the independent competitive specialist for the economy, the business man, will be discussed. The same story will be told for socialism and the scientific sphere. The point in all this is that the competitive specialists of each sphere from religion on provide the dynamic leadership necessary for the egalitarian ownership institution of the preceding sphere, and each egalitarian ownership institution provides fertile ground for the competitive specialists of the following sphere.

4. Religion Founders - Individual Ownership Institution Just as some of the military specialists succeed in making themselves emperors, some of the independent thinkers and teachers succeed in founding religious empires. There are many examples of thinkers who did so well that religions were founded on their thought and even named after them. Buddhism, Islam, Zorastrianism are good examples, but the most successful in sheer numbers and the most relevant to later developments is Christianity.

The idea of ownership is that the owner has the right to determine the rules of the institution. Christ has the right to determine religious doctrine within the Christian Religion. In reality, Christ's words are interpreted many ways, but to claim that Christ was just plain wrong on a subject of religious belief is to step outside the bounds of Christianity. Because Christ was an individual and his followers have recognized his right to determine doctrine, Christianity is an individual ownership institution.

Supporting evidence of the equivalence of the emperor and religion founder can be found in their titles. Christ is referred to as King of Kings, King of the Jews, Messiah, etc. Many monarches claimed the title Messiah as well as many other theological titles. This evidence is of course literary and should not be given excessive weight.

More important is the ability of Christianity and other religions founded by individuals, to jump national boundaries and form religious empires separate from the state and in some cases in spite of persecution from the state. This independence and intellectual competitiveness was characteristic of the independent thinkers and teachers but with the leadership of the founder of the religion accepted as dogma, it became more intense. Furthermore the great religions hold the allegiance of more people more profoundly than the earlier independent thinkers. This is reminiscent of the expansion of the state under the temporal emperors.

There are some differences between temporal and religious emperors. Monarchs pass their ownership rights on to their sons. The founders of the great religions retained them permanently. Confucus did not even gain the position of a religion founder until long after he was dead. That a person can become a religious but not a temporal emperor after one's death reflects the differences between the intellectual and a physical spheres. It is amazing how close the analogy is but it is not perfect.

5. Proselytizing Supporters - Dependent Competitive Specialists

The vast expansion of the religious empires required supporters. The proselytizing supporter carries on the same general activities as the independent thinker and teacher except the activities are in support of the doctrines of the religious founder. The contrast between an independent thinker and teacher such as Socrates and a proselytizing supporter such as Saint Paul clearly distinguishes the independent competitive specialist from the dependent competitive specialist.

6. Catholic Church - Educational Institution for Dependent Competitive Specialists

In their early years the Christian Churches did not have a monopoly position and did not require that Christians thrown to the lions have specific educational attainments. Opportunities for heroic sacrifice rarely have to be rationed. Eventually, however, the Catholic Church did establish a monopoly over large areas of Europe and eventually training was required of the clergy. Thus the Catholic Church had all the characteristics of an educational monopoly institution.

One of the characteristics of an educational institution for dependent competitive specialists is that it embodies a primitive form of that spheres egalitarian ownership institution. The egalitarian ownership institution for religion is civil liberty. Civil liberty represents freedom of communication and intellectual life from state control. The Church won for itself, as the repository of approved religious thought, freedom from state control. The clergy insisted on and received the right to try their own members in their own courts. Thus as a group they achieved civil liberty, just as the Spartan Equals achieved a form of republican government. To complete the process in each case the rights of the educated and credentialed elite had to be spread to the masses.

7. Protestant Reformation - Despecialization Luther consciously attempted to bring the clergy and the congregation together thus despecializing the role of the clergy. He attacked the role of the clergy in the sacraments by the declaration "by faith alone." Luther further depreciated the role of the clergy in determining doctrine with the declaration "by the Bible alone." The second declaration was supported by the printing press. If the printing press had not been invented and Bibles had been prohibitively expensive, then asking the laymen to read the Bible and interpret it for themselves would have been absurd. The printing press aided the Protestant cause with more than cheap Bibles. The words of Luther and other Protestant leaders were printed and distributed far more cheaply than would otherwise be possible. The alphabet was important to the development of the great modern religions so it should come as no surprise that the printing press also had major affect on religion.

The early affects of the Protestant Reformation were not only major, they were disastrous, terrible religious wars and intolerance. The short run affect of the despecialization of the military role in ancient Greece was tyranny. Despecialization contains the potential for opposites, tyranny and democracy, intolerance and tolerance.

8. Civil Liberty - Egalitarian Ownership Institution

The Dutch could not afford intolerance. William of Orange had to unite the religious factions of his supporters if they were going to have a chance against the Spanish. A common strategy of religious tolerance on a political level brought the factions together and allowed them to win independence for the Netherlands.

Religious freedom in and of itself would not have been a strong basis for general civil liberties if the Dutch had not been so fanatically intolerant on a personal level. But because the Dutch took their religious differences seriously, they were willing to defend the supporting freedoms, freedom of speech, press, etc. that must be protected if freedom of religion is to have meaning.

Civil liberty is an egalitarian ownership institution because (A) it is egalitarian in that all are free to communicate, (B) it is an ownership institution in that the right to co-determine the beliefs of society are held by right and are not gained through education, (C) it is an institution because it is a cooperative strategy that is established among the voters.

Finally it is a very important institution as evidenced by the success of he countries that adopted it. The Netherlands was not only a fantastically artistic and creative country, it was also the first country to break the Malthusian trap and obtain long run per-capita economic growth. But this is getting ahead of the story.

For a second time, the eight stages described in chapter three have explained the development of a sphere to an egalitarian ownership institution. The (1) chief established himself as a specialist with religious powers. The (2) theocratic state established a local monopoly and rationed entrance through education. The (3) independent thinker and teacher carried out intellectual competition between religions. Therefore they are independent competitive specialists. The (4) religion founder gained the right as individual owner to determine the doctrine of he religion. The (5) proselytizing supporter took over the role of competitive specialist in a dependent role. The (6) Catholic Church established an education institution for the dependent competitive specialist, the proselytizing supporter. The (7) Protestant Reformation despecialized the religious competitive specialist's role by uniting clergy and congregation. (8) Civil liberty, the egalitarian ownership institution for religion, established the freedom of all individuals to co-determine the beliefs of the community through speech and the press.

At this point we have completed four levels of theory. The first was specialist - institution, the second educational institution - ownership institution, the third individual ownership institution - egalitarian ownership institution, the fourth level is physical sphere - intellectual sphere. In all this we have discussed non- productive spheres. The next two chapters repeat the entire process for the productive spheres. So in chapters three through seven we will complete five levels of theory.

Chapter 6 The Economy: Craftsman to Socialism

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