The Root of All Evil

[BornAgainAtheist]

If the root of all evil is the love of money, there must have been money in the Garden of Eden, where according to Christians sin was brought into the world.  With that in mind, on what day did God create money?  And if it is the root of all evil I have to scratch my head and ask why he created it in the first place.  Doh.

[eartheconomyspirit]

If the root of all evil is the love of money, there must have been money in the Garden of Eden, where according to Christians sin was brought into the world.  With that in mind, on what day did God create money?  And if it is the root of all evil I have to scratch my head and ask why he created it in the first place.  Doh.

So where did it start. Probably been around for ever and relates to survival. However, it got a significant boost when Empires where thought a great idea. Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great, Agrippa 1 the Great, Constantine the Great.  Self service and power on steroids. Now these are roots of evil, I'd say :-) 

[Nick]

You don't think that apple was free...do you?

[Backspace]

Genesis 2:11 The name of the first river is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; 2:12 And the gold of that land is good...

Yahweh was on the gold standard even before there was anything to buy.

[Willie]

... go(o)d ...

Why do you keep doing that? It's very annoying.

[eartheconomyspirit]

... go(o)d ...

Why do you keep doing that? It's very annoying.

According to all I read, the notion of God is supposed to equate to everything Good. I adopted the habit when writing my book. I decided to use that context as a counter position to Judaism's form of G_d which I find no rationale basis for. What all religions say is God is Go(o)d, but the history tells quite a different story. I decided it's a go(o)d form to set the correct perspective.

A better question, and answer it honestly if you can, why do you find such a benign word form so annoying?

[Willie]

A better question, and answer it honestly if you can, why do you find such a benign word form so annoying?

By way of analogy: Imagine a Monty Python fan who likes to insert an occasional gratuitous "ni" into his posts. If done only rarely, it could be innocuous, or even mildly amusing if done cleverly. But if done incessantly, it's just obnoxious. It doesn't matter how benign it is.

[William]

What all religions say is God is Go(o)d, but the history tells quite a different story.

I'm finding it annoying too.  You even make the point that God's history is not good, so why write in a form that reads as Good?  It's dissonant.

[William]

And if it is the root of all evil I have to scratch my head and ask why he created it in the first place.  Doh.

God didn't create money - He can't - so He created tithing instead   

[eartheconomyspirit]

What all religions say is God is Go(o)d, but the history tells quite a different story.

I'm finding it annoying too.  You even make the point that God's history is not good, so why write in a form that reads as Good?  It's dissonant.

No I didn't make the point that  God's history is not good. Religions history is not all good. Nothing dissonant in that. Its your presumptions that are dissonant to be blunt :-) 

[eartheconomyspirit]

And if it is the root of all evil I have to scratch my head and ask why he created it in the first place.  Doh.

God didn't create money - He can't - so He created tithing instead   

No he didn't. That would be the Pharisees. Doh :-)

[William]

No I didn't make the point that  God's history is not good. Religions history is not all good.

Aren't we lucky you finally turned up to fix Go(o)d's public image   

What's the title on your book please? ... so I can put it on my ignore list.

[Irish]

The root of all evil is the ego and its love of all things insatiable.

  Well then, there's a surprise.

[Nam]

I thought atheism was the root of all evil?



-Nam

[eartheconomyspirit]

I thought atheism was the root of all evil?



-Nam

I'd go with Atheism is another root for ego, maybe. It's just another label adding to the sch(ism)s, is it not?

[Nam]

I know not nothing but what I know not.

-Nam

[eartheconomyspirit]

I know not nothing but what I know not.

-Nam

Better trade in the Professor title, perhaps :-)

[Nam]

I have no control over that.

-Nam

[ParkingPlaces]

eartheconomyspirit

Your web book has tons and tons of wise sayings from a wide variety of people, but apparently you've never read any of them. I don't remember Confucius or Socrates or Jesus ever saying "Go forth and be a dick."

Nam indeed cannot control the "professor" label by his name. And apparently you can't control anything, given how small you are.

I'd give you a -1, but you're already a pox on the system. Take a flying leap.

[Nam]

I guess my rephrasing of the Socrates attribution was lost on the guy.

So sad.

-Nam

[neopagan]

^^^^ Try Popeye's "I yam what I yam..." next time

[jaimehlers]

Old story, but right on the money.

“An old Cherokee told his grandson *snip*

This isn't exactly an old saying, but I think it applies here.

"He who repeats himself often says very little."

[eartheconomyspirit]

eartheconomyspirit

Your web book has tons and tons of wise sayings from a wide variety of people, but apparently you've never read any of them. I don't remember Confucius or Socrates or Jesus ever saying "Go forth and be a dick."

Nam indeed cannot control the "professor" label by his name. And apparently you can't control anything, given how small you are.

I'd give you a -1, but you're already a pox on the system. Take a flying leap.

Thanks dude, much appreciated :-)

[Jontom10]

I always thought that knowledge is considered to be the root of all evil by any religion

[Nam]

^^^^ Try Popeye's "I yam what I yam..." next time

Yes, I shouldn't just assume one's educated in certain things based on so little.



-Nam

[Just Another Opinion]

Okay so here is the deal, the Bible was written long ago in a number of different languages.  I would like to suggest that by the time we have received the Bible it has been translated through many languages and many generations.  To think that it is word for word accurate is silly.  To believe that it has remained generally intact is much more probable and probably more likely.  I don't mean to infer that the text has changed much, just that the wording has.  For example.  The black cat jumped in the pool.  VS  There was this crazy cat, which was black, and it did the stupidest thing I have ever seen.  It jumped into my pool!  While the wording is different the premise is the same.  So if we are really arguing semantics over words we need to find a few Scholars who speak things like 2000 year old Hebrew.(Yes I did steal some of this from an earlier post I wrote)

How this relates to our topic now:  I viewed 10 different translations(there were/are lots more) 3 of them said "For the love of money is the root of all evil" and 7 said "For the love of money is a root of all sorts(kinds) of evil".  The key difference being the word sorts/kinds.  Meaning that the obsession with money usually leads to a dark and sad place, especially for those who yearn for it and don't have it.  Just look at how many wealthy famous people commit suicide.(Not intending to infer anything leaning one way or the other here)  What we have is two sides arguing over semantics.  In my opinion this argument could have been crafted at a much higher level and created decent debate.

If the root of all evil is the love of money, there must have been money in the Garden of Eden, where according to Christians sin was brought into the world.  With that in mind, on what day did God create money?  And if it is the root of all evil I have to scratch my head and ask why he created it in the first place.  Doh.

[eartheconomyspirit]

Okay so here is the deal, the Bible was written long ago in a number of different languages.  I would like to suggest that by the time we have received the Bible it has been translated through many languages and many generations.  To think that it is word for word accurate is silly.  To believe that it has remained generally intact is much more probable and probably more likely.  I don't mean to infer that the text has changed much, just that the wording has.  For example.  The black cat jumped in the pool.  VS  There was this crazy cat, which was black, and it did the stupidest thing I have ever seen.  It jumped into my pool!  While the wording is different the premise is the same.  So if we are really arguing semantics over words we need to find a few Scholars who speak things like 2000 year old Hebrew.(Yes I did steal some of this from an earlier post I wrote)

How this relates to our topic now:  I viewed 10 different translations(there were/are lots more) 3 of them said "For the love of money is the root of all evil" and 7 said "For the love of money is a root of all sorts(kinds) of evil".  The key difference being the word sorts/kinds.  Meaning that the obsession with money usually leads to a dark and sad place, especially for those who yearn for it and don't have it.  Just look at how many wealthy famous people commit suicide.(Not intending to infer anything leaning one way or the other here)  What we have is two sides arguing over semantics.  In my opinion this argument could have been crafted at a much higher level and created decent debate.

If the root of all evil is the love of money, there must have been money in the Garden of Eden, where according to Christians sin was brought into the world.  With that in mind, on what day did God create money?  And if it is the root of all evil I have to scratch my head and ask why he created it in the first place.  Doh.

The root of all evil is this thing called ego. Money is a derivative issue and symbolizes greed. You've still got lust, envy, anger, lies, some priests etc ...   

[Graybeard]

The root of all evil is this thing called ego.

So it's you who's causing all this evil... OK

[William]

The root of all evil is this thing called ego.

I don't buy this.  It sounds like unbalanced pop-psychology to me.

There are plenty good things that come from a healthy ego.

Ego helps young adults strive for independence.

Ego can help people fight back when being abused or bullshitted.

Ego motivates a lot of the individual achievements that make the whole human species so amazing in science, sport, arts, politics, and business.  Try running a sales team full of people low on ego    You can train people to listen and respond to customers, but without strong ego they won't negotiate effectively and have trouble bouncing back from rejection.  On the cutting edge of vital research - what could we expect from a research team whose leader doesn't yearn to be the first to publish  or the first to discredit or better earlier discoveries?  Would art be as good if signing it was outlawed? 

Yes there are negative (evil) aspects to ego, not the least of which is religious know-it-alls whose primary hope to satisfy their hunger for respect is spruiking 'personal insights' into the thinking and ways of invisible deities – prophets, clergy and apologists parasiting off the imaginary glory and powers of the mysterious invisible and unverifiable, all for their own little slice of ego-heaven right here on this earth.