Money Or God?

..... hopefully not? That would mean a few of my friends are and they're more serious about christianity than me so it would surprise me o.o

Money.

It's the leading cause of just about anything I can think of. Though don't get me wrong, "god" has followed money around like a lost puppy. Wars would be about money and property, under the guise of religious zealotry. Religions all over the world ask for donations of money to perpetuate themselves, Christians pay a tithe of 10% of their income to the churches, which is higher than most people py in income taxes. Monesy perpetuates everything, nothing could be DONE without money, including effective preachings about God.

If there was no money, or if things cost so much that money was basically worthless; then people still have the religion and God to fall back on; money may be a means to an end, or the stuff that you want and need; but God can buy you clarity and empathy and emotional support. Not saying money can't do that, but I am saying that money won't do it for free

God doesn't do that for free either. I'm telling you right now, church, organized religion, all of these things are a direct result of money being given to the organizations. Can one worship on their own, without money? Sure, but it doesn't give you any of that empathy, or emotional support, or that clarity to do it without a priest or apologist guiding you along to help you 'understand' better.

Church, organized religion, all of these things are a direct result of money being given to the organizations. Organized religion means what it says; I don't interpret that as being an organization that needs money. It could be a man that opens his home for bible study every Wednesday to the public. Then the person wouldn't be alone, but even if your first statement was correct. "Can one worship on their own, without money? Sure, but it doesn't give you any of that empathy, or emotional support, or that clarity to do it without a priest or apologist guiding you along to help you 'understand' better." please back up this statement. I occasionally study the bible by myself, and am constantly shocked by how a passing passage relates directly to something that I may be going through, and it provides clarity as to what I should do to deal with the situation. Are you implying that people are incapable of independent thought regarding the bible, because last I checked there are many different factions of Christianity?

Can Faith stop your hunger? No.

Can money stop your hunger? Yes.

I'm just that realistic.

Money doesn't stop hunger, food does.

Firstly I'd like to point out that ne doesn't have a home to open up for bible study without money, and in fact I've never seen a single form of worship that has any sort of gratification that doesn't include something that was paid for.

Secondly the fact that people need priests or apolgoiists, or shamen or what have you to help them achieve empathy and whatnot from their bibles is not simply something I've said unsubstantiated. There's evidence all over the internet. Entire ministires have devoted their time to trying to point out WHY the bible isn't actually a book of horrible crimes of humanity written by men, for men, and is nothing more than stories dreamt up by goat herders in the BC era for the Old Testament, and the insane ramblings of people copying off eachother that nobody knows the names of for the New.

Read the bible cover to cover and tell me it didn't bore you in many places, disgust you in many more, and wasn't hardly even helpful when it comes to dealing with everyday life.

Regularly contradictions in the bible require apologist explanations, historical errors require apologist explanations. There is NO way to interpret any religion, not just the bible, that is perfect, and can help you in every day life. the bible doesn't tell you how to handle social events, it doesn't tell you how to talk to the opposite sex so you might engage in a loving relationship, the bible doesn't tell you how to do anything except worship, and give a bunch of old thousands of years old rules that no longer need be or ought be adhered to. It's a book, just like any other, and to any rational thinking erson, it doesn't offer anything overtly useful.As to your comment about money not feeding people, but food feeding people? Well then guess what, I can be just as obtuse as you. God doesn't provide empathy, it's the psychological process of calming oneself with prayer, or reading a book with a priori understandings of morals and pplying them to the teachings in the bible. God doesn't provide us with anything, all of the things people claim 'god' gives us is all gotten through secular, already explained processes, and none of them are unique to worship either.


You cited the fact that there are over 30,000 denominations of christianity as somehow evidence that one doesn't need anyone else to hep them interpret the bible, when that fact alone goes AGAINST your stance, and helps mine. what HAPPENS when people read the bible independently and start coming up with their own ideas? More denominations come up, and ALL of these denominations start getting pissed off at eachother and saying the others are all misled and wrong about the bible. This isn't a good thing.

[he doesn't have a home to open up for bible study without money] If you want to get down to it, money is something that we use to buy things; with your argument you could say that without money, we couldn't even have the bible because it cost money to make and distribute it. You are right, money is used to motivate people and without it we would be without many of the commodities that we enjoy today. The economic system is a crucial part of society, and our ability to control it is what brings progress. But the fact is that I would rather have my beliefs, then sell my soul to money any day. My personal study is not tainted by such a worldly thing. I read to enhance my personality, and as a way to manipulate people to my way of thinking so that we may have a better understanding. People chasing money don't want to understand anything, they just want to get paid. Some people preach because they want that sort of thinking to end. For your second point: the topic is money or God and I say fuck anyone who tells me how to read the bible. They can help me, maybe I will agree with a point or two that they may have, but I blindly follow no man or bible. Your third paragraph is in my funny based on the fact that it's true and it proves that the bible has a significant affect on people. I don't think the bible would last in a civilized world, because no one would be stupid enough to believe it, but most people on this planet believe in a higher being. Money may make society, but religion shapes it hopefully into something less shitty, sometimes more so. Even people with the money use it to control the masses; they have a deep relationship. Money and God. It is a book, that you and every single slightly civilized person in America knows about. I wouldn't underestimate the power of the bible. You look at it only for it's faults, so you fail to see the gem within. Religion is just a giant fallacy that you should take advantage of to make your neighbor a better person when he pisses you off. It has way more affect then tossing money at the situation; in my opinion that makes it better than money which only appeals to greed.

Religions thrive on donations and the bigwigs at the top are laughing at all the people just throwing money at their feet in exchange for salvation. Also, people seem to be implying that morality stems from religion when I knew what was right and wrong before I even knew what G/god(s) were.

You buy food with money.Farmers grow our food to sell them for money to buy more seeds to make more food. If i'm any judge, Farmers deserve more respect than a entity that i've never met and asked to worship.

Can you buy food with faith? No.

Without food can you continue preaching on how awesome god is? No.

Conclusion, wake up.

That is not what I meant to imply; Where morality stems from is the topic of much debate, but religion can and does serve as a moral compass for the better part of the world. You say that religions thrive on donations; but the people who receive the donations are only a small percentage of the people involved with the religion. No one gets paid to go to church, except the preacher and the staff. The people who come far out number them.

From the most basic of things that i learnt from religion when i was a kid. It basically sums up that you'll go to heaven if you're a good kid and burn in hell if you're not while the people from heaven laughs at you while you agonize.

It's not out of morals, it's out of fear. Fear breed out of ignorance of a place that is never proven to exist.

There's no doubt in my mind that religion plays a huge part in society, but money plays a bigger part than religion. To bring about the idea of God via the Bible, you need to have funded the project to get the word out somehow. It doesn't necessarily have to be money, but something to "trade", someone has to gain from it for your cause, that's just how things work. Printing costs, costs to produce paper and ink, putting all that together into a book and then selling it as a Bible so the new owner can hit someone over the head with it when someone doesn't agree with their crackpot theories.

Money exists, we all know that. All forms of currency in the world is classed as "money", and "money" is used worldwide. You don't need to believe in money to have a comfortable lifestyle.

God, there's no proof he exists. The only "evidence" we have is a series of books put together, which could've easily been made up and intended to scare young children for all we know. You also need to believe in God for whatever Christians believe Heaven is like, but does it help you in the long run? Not really. All I've ever heard Christians do is "predict" the end of the world and continuously get it wrong.

Compared to money, God doesn't have such a huge impact because there are other cultures, like Islam, who have their own entity, and money is in our everyday lives whether we like it or not but nonetheless we generally accept it.

Without God, we can have an amazing lifestyle if we have money. Without money, we can't do anything even if you try to keep postitive by believing that an entity of questionable existance will "help you", in fact we'd have a pretty rotten existance if we dont help ourselves and stop relying on a man with a white beard.


So in short I'd say money.