November 11th, 2007 by Walter
…engineers turn out to be by far the most religious group of all academics – 66.5 per cent, followed again by 61.7 in economics [emphasis added by TC], 49.9 in sciences, 48.8 per cent of social scientists, 46.3 of doctors and 44.1 per cent of lawyers, the most sceptical of the lot. Engineers and economists are also those who oppose religion least (3.7% and 3.0%), and, together with the humanities, those who more strongly embrace it…
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November 12th, 2007 at 3:39 pm
“…Do engineers have a ‘mindset’ that makes them a particularly good match for Islamism, or is their vigorous radicalization explained by the social conditions they endured in Islamic countries? We argue that the interaction between the last two causes is the most plausible explanation of our findings…”
Ding !
People are a product of their social environment as much as anything.
I would add that “software engineers” are NOT engineers in the traditional sense but artists/craftspeople. If software development was an engineering process, there would be far fewer “bugs” by several orders of magnitude and lots better systems. We are, just barely, in the guild/priesthood phase of software. Engineering is still out there “in the future”.
Economics IS a religion so no surprise there.
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One might also label the practice of economics, as we`ve known it, the mathematical representation of politics.
A true science of economics would have NO significant externalities.
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