While believing in Austrian economics says nothing about a persons religious beliefs, having a religious belief in the Holy Spirit does imply Austrian economics. Austrian economics is founded on the science of human action which is not a deistic belief, but the observation that human actions are too complicated and varied to predict. Austrian economics does not say or even attempt to explain why human action is too complicated to understand, it just observes that it is and makes certain general logical deductions about economics and how to optimize social benefit from there. But faith in the Holy Spirit offers a possible explanation as to why human action is too complicated to understand. That explanation is that human action can never be predicted accurately because human beings have free will which is caused by the Holy Spirit. In Austrian economics, human action could be completely pre-determined, completely pre-destined, but just too complicated to figure out*. With faith in the Holy Spirit, human action by definition can not be predicted period, it is non predictable by the very nature of God and God's universe, because people have free will. So free will implies human action, even though human action does not necessarily imply free will. To understand the relationship between the Holy Spirit and free will, one must first understand the religious history leading up to the revelation of the Holy Spirit to Moses. The Jews already believed in "God the Father", but were made slaves by the Egyptians. This created a serious philosophical issue for them. Were they like cogs in the machine of God's universe, just like a gear in a clock that is predestined act only one way? If they were, then their belief in God and submission to slavery wouldn't matter too much, it was all pre determined anyhow. This question was answered for them by the revelation of the Holy Spirit to Moses. Analogous to a dove that flies in unknown direction or a bush that burns, but is not consumed. The Holy Spirit is the nature of God that causes people to not just be a "gear in a clock". Indeed, the biblical story of Moses is one of hard core choices that seem contrary to destiny or circumstance. When the mother of Moses sent him down the river to be found by the daughter of Pharaoh, that was not a circumstance but a hard core decision. When Moses stood up to protect the life of a "worthless" slave, and risked his own liberty by killing an Egyptian that was attacking one, that was also not a circumstance but a choice. When Moses fought off people harassing girls at a well, when he could have let things be. Especially when Moses said to the Pharaoh "let my people go", and escaped Egypt crossing the Red Sea. It would be extremely difficult to attribute any one of those to victimhood of circumstance. Even the 10 commandments. Why write down the law of God if people were pre-destined to act a certain way anyhow? ** In sum, faith in the Holy Spirit implies free will from which one must assume that human action is not predictable. But, that is also the foundation of Austrian economics. 1) HA => AE 2) HS => FW => HA (even though HA !=> FW) therefore, HS => AE * It seems plenty of non Christians dismiss AE on faith, in spite of it's rational foundation :) ** the fact that most practising Christians ignore the logical implications of the Holy Spirit does nothing to invalidate the implication |