The Buddhist Monks and Their Dog Walk

On 26 October 2025, a group of Buddhist monks and their dog began walking from a Buddhist temple in Texas to Washington, D.C. They are still walking today and are expected to reach Washington sometime in the middle of February. See this Religion News Service article here.

A few facts about the walk:

• The leader of the group is walking barefoot and now has heavily bandaged feet after stepping on rocks, nails, and glass along the way.
• The monks sleep in tents during the nights.
• Their dog, named Aloka, was rescued in India on an earlier long walk.
• The entire walk will be about 2300 miles.
• One of the monks was injured by a distracted driver passing by the walkers; the monk lost one of his legs and had to discontinue his participation in the walk.

Why are they walking, you ask? The leader, the Venerable Bhikkhu Pannakara, explained that they want to promote peace, and that converting people is not their goal. A spokesman for the Texas temple stated that, once in Washington, the monks will ask that Vesak, the day marking the birth of Buddha's enlightenment, be recognized as a national holiday.

This long walk is a good example of a credibility-enhancing religious action discussed in chapter 5 of the MM book. A credibility-enhancing religious action is a costly action that provides a strong signal of an individual's religious belief. Costly actions reveal much more about a person's beliefs that cheap action, and this long cross-country walk is a very costly action. The monks have given up months of other activities and suffered physical discomfort and even injuries while walking.

Yet, the walk itself is communicating to others the strength and convictions of the monks, and this has already yielded some positive results in the form of substantial interest and goodwill. Multiple (non-Buddhist) churches have hosted the monks along the way, thereby creating a sense of solidarity, community, and peace... just like the monks wanted.

Who are the Religious "Nones?"

Survey respondents who report "none" when asked for their religious affiliation are referred to as the religious "nones." This group of individuals is especially interesting because its share of the population has significantly increased in many countries during recent decades.

However, not all people who report "none" as their religious affiliation are the same. This can be seen in a Pew Research Report from last September. Many findings are reviewed in this report, and I will just point out a few of them.

First and foremost -- and this is what got the headline -- many nones hold some type of religious belief.  In the 22 countries they examined:

• About 1 in 5 nones believe in an afterlife.
• About 1 in 4 nones believe in God.
• About half of nones believe that "there is something spiritual beyond the natural world, even if we cannot see it."
• And about 60% of nones believe that "animals can have spirits or spiritual energies."

This is not to say that all of these people consider themselves religious. Most nones report that religion is "not important" or "not too important" in their lives, and by the standard measures the nones are less religious than those who do report a religious affiliation. Most nones in Western countries also report a belief that religion encourages intolerance, though the majority of nones in some other countries do not report the same.

There is much more in the report, so check it out, and keep in mind two big take-aways. First, the nones are a diverse group. The nones within one country can differ significantly from each other, and the nones in one country can differ significantly from nones in a different country. Second, the distinction between religious and not religious is a blurry one. A person can seem religious by one measure of religiosity and, at the same time, seem non-religious by another measure. This does not mean that the concept of religiosity is meaningless, but it does mean that we must accept some amount of imprecision when using the term. It also means there can be practical value in thinking of religiosity not as an either-or concept but as a matter of degrees.

Understanding Why Some People Stay in Their Religion While Others Leave

The following is a blog post written with the assistance of the Econ 17 Chatbot. I uploaded a printed pdf copy of this recent Religion News Service article and asked the chatbot to write a blog post that used the concept of religious capital to help us understand the patterns in the research study. I gave the chatbot some specific instructions in my prompt to provide it with clear direction on what I wanted. I then made edits and revisions to get the final product. I could have used the Pew report as the source, but I chose to use the news article because of its newsy style of writing.

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A recent article from Religion News Service explores findings from a new Pew Research Center report on why some Americans stay in their religion while others leave. The study, based on data from Pew's 2023-24 U.S. Religious Landscape Study surveying 8,937 adults, reveals that childhood religious experiences are the primary factor determining whether Americans maintain their faith into adulthood. While 56% of Americans still identify with their childhood faith, 35% have switched religious affiliations—including 20% who now claim no religion. The data shows a stark difference: 84% of those with positive childhood religious experiences remained in the same faith as adults, compared to 69% of those with negative experiences who now identify as having no religion.

From an economics of religion perspective, this phenomenon is not just about faith; it's about deeply ingrained social processes and accumulated investments that create powerful incentives to stay.

One key concept that helps us understand religious persistence is cultural transmission. Think of it like passing down a family recipe—parents and communities transmit religious beliefs, practices, and values to the next generation through repeated exposure, direct teaching, and social feedback. This isn't always a conscious process for the recipient; it's often absorbed through upbringing, social networks, and early experiences.

The article's findings that people with positive childhood religious experiences are more likely to remain in their faith provides clear evidence of cultural transmission at work. When cultural transmission is successful, individuals develop strong preferences for their inherited religious tradition. Conversely, negative childhood experiences represent failed or costly cultural transmission, making individuals more likely to seek alternatives or abandon religion altogether.

The concept of religious capital—the accumulated benefits and resources derived from religious participation—also applies. Religious capital includes social networks within the religious community, knowledge of traditions and practices, emotional connections to rituals, and the sense of identity that comes from group membership. Like any form of capital, religious capital results from investment that has been built up over time.

When individuals have invested significant time and effort into building religious capital within their current tradition, the economic cost of abandoning it becomes substantial. They risk losing not only their established social connections and support systems but also the familiar framework for meaning-making they've developed. The benefits of staying within a familiar religious tradition often outweigh the perceived benefits of seeking alternatives, especially when the costs of acquiring new religious capital in a different tradition are high.

This economic framework helps explain why 84% of people with positive childhood religious experiences stay in their tradition, while 69% of those with negative experiences leave. Positive childhood experiences represent successful cultural transmission and early investment in religious capital, creating strong incentives to remain. Negative experiences suggest failed transmission and lower accumulated religious capital, reducing the switching costs of leaving.

Understanding these economic forces can help religious communities better support positive cultural transmission and recognize that religious commitment often reflects rational responses to the costs and benefits of participation, accumulated over a lifetime of experiences and relationships. Human beings, it turns out, are remarkably good at making decisions that maximize their well-being—even in matters of faith.

Understanding Religious Decline Using the Concept of Religious Capital

The following is a blog post written with the assistance of the Econ 17 ClassChat chatbot. I uploaded a copy of the Pew Research Center piece and asked the chatbot to write a blog post that used the concept of religious capital to help us understand the patterns in the research study. I then made several edits and revisions to get the final product.

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Headlines about declining religious affiliation worldwide might seem to tell a straightforward story of secularization. However, applying economic analysis—particularly the concept of religious capital—reveals a far more nuanced picture of what's actually happening to religion around the globe.

We see this in a recent piece published by the Pew Research Center. This piece summarizes a recent academic research article that describes how religious decline follows a predictable three-stage pattern called the "Participation-Importance-Belonging" (P-I-B) sequence. First, people participate in worship services less frequently. Second, the importance of religion diminishes in their personal lives. Finally, formal religious belonging becomes less common. This pattern appears across 94 countries and territories studied, suggesting a universal mechanism of religious change.

Religious capital a key concept from economics of religion, refers to the accumulated knowledge, skills, social connections, and cultural familiarity that individuals develop through participation in religious activities. Like financial capital or human capital, religious capital is built through investment (time, effort, participation) and can depreciate without maintenance.

When we view the Pew Research Center's findings through this economic lens, the three-stage decline pattern makes perfect economic sense. People first reduce their investment in building religious capital by attending services less frequently. As their religious capital depreciates, religion becomes less important in their personal lives. Finally, formal religious belonging becomes less valuable as their accumulated religious capital diminishes.

The economic framework helps explain why religious decline isn't universal. In regions like Western Europe and parts of the Americas, several economic factors may be reducing the returns to religious capital investment. Increased opportunity costs mean that as secular alternatives become more attractive and accessible—better entertainment, social services, education—the opportunity cost of time spent in religious activities rises. Government crowd-out occurs when governments provide social safety nets, healthcare, and community services that religious groups traditionally offered, reducing the practical benefits of religious participation. Reduced network effects happen in societies where fewer people participate in religion, decreasing the social benefits of religious capital and creating a self-reinforcing cycle of decline.

Conversely, regions maintaining high religiosity—like parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia—often have economic conditions that maintain high returns to religious capital. Religious groups continue to provide essential social services, strong social networks make religious capital more valuable, economic insecurity increases demand for the insurance and support functions religion provides, and government restrictions may actually increase the value of religious identity and community.

Understanding religious decline through an economic lens suggests that simple demographic projections may miss important dynamics. If the economic returns to religious capital change—through shifts in government policy, social conditions, or the competitive landscape—religious participation patterns could shift more rapidly than linear projections suggest.

The global pattern of religious change isn't simply about belief or cultural evolution—it's also about changing economic incentives. Where religious capital provides valuable returns through social networks, services, meaning, and community, religion thrives. Where secular alternatives provide better returns on time and effort invested, religious participation declines.

This economic perspective doesn't diminish the spiritual or cultural significance of religion, but it does help us understand why religious change follows predictable patterns and why one-size-fits-all predictions about secularization often fail. As the global economy continues to evolve, so too will the economic landscape that shapes individual decisions about religious participation and the accumulation of religious capital.

Minnesota High School Students and Religious Colleges

 The U.S. is well known for having a long tradition of religious freedom. However, religious freedom is a constantly negotiated concept. To see an example of this, consider the following that just happened in the state of Minnesota, which you can read about here.

High school students sometimes take college courses for credit, and in some states in the U.S., the state will reimburse the college for the cost of the high school student taking the class. This is a way for the state to encourage students to take college courses.

In 2023, a statute was passed in the state of Minnesota so that if a religious college required a student to submit a “faith statement,” then that college could no longer participate in this program. The argument for the statute was that the faith statement is a way for a college to unfairly discriminate against (non-religious) students who will not agree to abide by the values of the religious school. This statute shifted the incentives for high-school students in Minnesota, increasing the incentive to go to non-religious colleges by effectively removing the option to attend the religious colleges. Some parents sued the state, arguing that this statute violated their religious freedom, and a state judge ruled in these parents' favor last Friday, thus striking down the statute for now (the case will be appealed).

There are always some subtle legal matters in cases like this, and the key one here is the question of whether the law poses a burden on the free exercise of religion. The free exercise of religion is a constitutionally protected right in the U.S., and constitutional law has developed such that a law is only allowed to limit some form of religious activity if it does not impose too high a burden on the religious person and that the law applies generally so that it is not specifically targeting the religious person. The judge ruled in this case that the law did not meet these standards.

This development is a great example of how religious liberty is not always a clear-cut concept. Just what is allowed as religious behavior and what is not must be continually worked out by different individuals and organizations, often with a big role played by the legal system. This case also illustrates how individual incentives depend on the "rules of the game," because the statute influenced the behavior of high school students.

Muslim Matchmaking, Coordination, and Cultural Transmission

Here is another ClassChat-assisted blog post. I had to provide several prompts and then do significant editing on the final output.

This Associated Press article on Muslim matchmaking provides insight into how religious communities address fundamental economic challenges through their social institutions. Rather than focusing on a single principle from the Top 10 Economics-of-Religion Principles, this analysis examines two interconnected economic concepts that illuminate the matchmaking phenomenon: coordination problems and cultural transmission.

The matchmaking practices described in the article exemplify classic coordination problems that arise when individuals' success depends on aligning their expectations and actions with others. In the context of Muslim dating and marriage, potential partners face significant uncertainty about each other's religious commitment, lifestyle preferences, and long-term compatibility. Without mechanisms to coordinate these expectations, individuals struggle to find suitable matches, leading to coordination failure. The "halal-haram ratio" mentioned by matchmakers constitutes one possible way of confronting the coordination challenge because it provides a framework for thinking about compatibility and for finding possible matches.

Matchmaking itself is a practice by which members of religious communities invest in cultural transmission. When parents involve themselves in their children's partner selection, or when community members facilitate introductions, they are making strategic investments in cultural continuity. So, helping to make matches is not just a way to make the two sides of the match happy. It also promotes the overall community.

The diversity of matchmaking approaches—from traditional family arrangements to modern apps—demonstrates how religious communities adapt their coordination mechanisms while preserving core cultural transmission functions. Whether through "matchmaking aunties" or sophisticated algorithms, the underlying economic function remains consistent: helping community members find partners whose religious commitment and cultural values support successful cultural transmission to the next generation.

The matchmaking services and practices described in the article solve multiple economic problems simultaneously. They reduce search costs for individuals seeking religiously compatible partners, provide quality signals about potential matches' commitment levels, and create network effects that benefit the entire community. These matchmaking mechanisms are economic solutions to complex coordination problems within communities. and they help religious communities maintain their distinctive identities while adapting to contemporary social conditions

The Credibility and Authority of a Catholic AI

This Washington Post article describes a new AI application called Magisterium AI, a chatbot designed specifically for Catholics to answer questions related to Catholic policy and doctrine. Like the Econ 17 ClassChat chatbot, which is trained specifically on course documents, Magisterium AI is a chatbot that is trained on 27,000 Catholic documents. That way, its responses are grounded solidly in Church writings, unlike a more general chatbot like ChatGPT, which will pull from a variety of sources both in and out of the Church when providing responses.

There are multiple aspects of Magisterium AI of interest to us in this class. First of all, it represents a new kind of religious good—namely, a chatbot trained specifically for the members of a particular religious denomination. Individuals looking for an official Catholic answer to a religious question will find it convenient to ask the chatbot at any time of day instead of finding the right time and place to ask a knowledgeable person. It is not actually the first AI designed for Catholics; an earlier attempt had some pretty serious flaws.

Second, the creators of the chatbot are very concerned about the credibility of the app and the authoritativeness of the answers that it provides. They want the chatbot's answers to be trustworthy reflections of actual church teachings and policies, so they enlisted the help of two priests and a number of others to decide what to include in the set of training documents. Knowing this about a chatbot is important for many users. If a user wants a general answer that is not necessarily from a devout Catholic perspective, then a general chatbot like ChatGPT is a potentially good source, but if a user wants an answer that is ensured to be from a devout Catholic perspective, then Magisterium AI is a much better source.

Finally, the article explains that sometimes people do not want to talk to a priest or other human, and they appreciate the relative anonymity when interacting with an online source. Magisterium AI provides an option for these people.

I expect more denomination-specific chatbots to be developed. Patrick Green, a professor who was interviewed for the article, considered this proliferation of religious chatbots to be concerning. Perhaps, but we are already in a diverse world, and having chatbots with some degree of authoritativeness is beneficial for people who want to get credible answers. That is true for non-Catholics and Magisterium AI as well. Even non-Catholic users may want to know how a credible Catholic source answers questions.

The platform also demonstrates how religious groups can adapt to technological change while maintaining their core mission of providing authoritative guidance to their members. As religious competition intensifies in our pluralistic society, tools like Magisterium AI may become increasingly important for denominations seeking to serve their members effectively while preserving doctrinal integrity. Rather than viewing this trend with concern, we might see it as a natural evolution of how religious authority adapts to meet the needs of believers in an increasingly digital world.

[Note: I gave the Econ 17 ClassChat chatbot the first five paragraphs above that I wrote myself and asked it for a concluding paragraph. It gave me a two-paragraph conclusion. The first paragraph was not good, but the second one was. So, I used the second one here with only minor edits.]

The Rise of Multiple Church Attendance: An Economic Analysis (by the Econ 17 ClassChat Chatbot)

I asked the Econ 17 ClassChat chatbot to write a blog post for me. I gave it this article from the Christian Post on June 18, 2025, about nearly half of American churchgoers attending more than one church, and the provided this prompt:

Consider an economics of religion blog that publishes blog posts for a general audience on current events in the world and how we can understand those blog posts using the economics of religion. Your task is to write a 400-500 word blog post for this economics of religion blog. In this blog post you must use the economics of religion to comment on the news article about churchgoers attending more than one congregation. The goal is to help readers understand how the economics of religion can be used to understand this phenomenon. The blog post should reference Top 10 Economics of Religion Principle 1 in making its presentation. It should also be factually correct and use correct economic reasoning as taught in the course.

Its output was too long, so I asked it to shorten the blog post, giving it some advice on what to cut. The end result is the following blog post.

The Rise of Multiple Church Attendance: An Economic Analysis

A recent study by the Hartford Institute for Religion Research reveals a striking trend: 46% of American churchgoers now attend more than one church regularly. This phenomenon, accelerated by the pandemic's expansion of online worship, offers a fascinating case study in how technological change and market dynamics reshape religious participation patterns. 

Rational Religious Choice in Action 

Top 10 Economics-of-Religion Principle 1 states that "individuals act rationally when making religious choices." The multiple church attendance phenomenon perfectly illustrates this principle while revealing significant changes in the costs and benefits facing religious consumers. 

The Hartford Institute's findings demonstrate how technological innovation has fundamentally altered the economic calculus of religious participation. Previously, attending multiple churches involved substantial costs: additional travel time, scheduling conflicts, and potential social awkwardness from divided loyalties. These high transaction costs effectively limited most people to single-congregation participation. 

However, the pandemic's acceleration of online worship has dramatically reduced these costs. Virtual services eliminate travel time, remove scheduling constraints, and reduce social friction. The 24% of respondents who combine in-person and virtual attendance are leveraging technology to access diverse religious goods while minimizing traditional participation costs. 

From an economic perspective, these churchgoers are maximizing their utility by accessing diverse religious goods and services across multiple providers. One congregation might excel at inspiring worship music, while another offers superior children's programming or community outreach. The reduction in switching costs allows individuals to sample the best offerings from each, much like consumers who shop at different stores to find optimal products for their needs. 

The study reveals that this behavior represents rational portfolio diversification in the religious sphere. Just as financial advisors recommend diversifying investment portfolios to reduce risk, some religious consumers are diversifying their spiritual portfolios to hedge against uncertainty while exploring different theological perspectives and worship styles. 

The Economics of Religious Diversification

This trend reflects classic economic behavior under uncertainty. In a world where religious truth claims are difficult to verify—what economists call "credence goods"—attending multiple churches allows individuals to hedge their bets while exploring different theological perspectives and worship styles. 

The Hartford study's finding that "one in five people who regularly participate elsewhere are doing so with a congregation of a different denomination or faith tradition" suggests that some individuals are engaging in what economists call "religious syncretism"—rationally combining elements from different religious traditions to maximize their spiritual satisfaction. 

Implications for Religious Organizations 

The rise of multiple church attendance presents both opportunities and challenges for religious leaders. While it may reduce the intensity of commitment to any single congregation, it also expands the potential market for religious services. Churches that embrace this trend by offering high-quality, distinctive programming may attract participants from well beyond their traditional geographic boundaries. 

However, this shift also requires rethinking traditional models of religious membership, stewardship, and community building. Religious organizations may need to develop new strategies for fostering commitment and generating the resources necessary for their mission in an environment where loyalty is increasingly divided. 

The Hartford Institute's research reveals that American religious behavior is becoming more sophisticated and market-oriented. Rather than representing a decline in religious commitment, the trend toward multiple church attendance may signal the emergence of more discerning religious consumers who actively seek to maximize the value they receive from their spiritual investments.

The chatbot's focus on Principle 1 is excellent because the pattern of attending multiple churches is definitely something that can be understood as rational decision making. The rise in virtual services dramatically lowered the cost to attending multiple churches, and some simple economic reasoning suggests more people may then want to attend multiple churches. The last section also makes some good points about how the rise of virtual services is an opportunity for religious suppliers to reach new people while also posing challenges for community building.

The weakest part of the blog post is the discussion of risk diversification. Risk diversification can certainly be a motivation for attending multiple churches (as discussed in the MM book), and it may be a motivation in this instance. However, there was only limited evidence in the article that risk diversification was a motivation. Instead, the motivation was primarily driven by limited time, convenience, and a preference for virtual services.

Overall, the Econ 17 ClassChat chatbot wrote a good blog post about an interesting topic of relevance to our class, and with some additional human editing, the blog post would have been even better. AI combined with the human editing is the way to get the blog post.