Is currency evil?

Discussion in 'Ethics, Morality, & Justice' started by DestroyCurrency?, Oct 2, 2013.

  1. KitemanSA Registered Senior Member

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    Yup, truly impossible. It MAY, at some time, be that the "currency" will be something other than symbolic representatives of physical goods and services, but I'm not sure whether that will ever be practical except in very small communities.

    There is a good SF about it called "Voyage from Yesteryear" by James P. Hogan. Enjoy!
     
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  3. KitemanSA Registered Senior Member

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    Heck, even a little known book from ~2000 years ago says that it is the LOVE of money that is the root of all evil, not the money itself.
     
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  5. Arne Saknussemm trying to figure it all out Valued Senior Member

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    I realize that you are just using understatement as a device, but in fact you're talking about the number one bestseller of all time. (See the blockbuster movie with Charlton Heston, no less!). However, you're spot on - this verse is often misquoted, not 'money', but 'the love of money'.
     
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  7. wellwisher Banned Banned

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    Most religions teach lessons how to understand and regulate human nature. The Christians might call the evil within human nature, the devil within. This, devil within, is closer to the truth, than saying an external object, like money or currency, is evil.

    Atheism tends to create projection and make people lose the sense of personal accountability. If money or currency is the problem, it is not my fault if I do terrible things with it, since money has this magic power. It is not about me or something inside of me. It is the currency.

    Interestingly, the evil of money or guns tends to come from those who don't like religion but favor atheism. The religious tend to go by the evil within and when this is conscious and regulated, have no problem with these inanimate objects.

    The Christian religion, will project the dark side of human nature onto the devil. This has the value of separating the evil from material objects, since the object is material while the devil is spiritual. Atheism will say the devil is a myth and remove this. What is left is the object plus projection; merge again. Although psychology will attempt to separate these.
     
  8. Arne Saknussemm trying to figure it all out Valued Senior Member

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    I know! I don't know about our dear brothers and sisters here at SciForum, but most atheists I have met are terribly superstitious. Like our friend on this forum they scorn my Christian beliefs and say there is no evidence that God exists, or if He does he must be a right bastard. And then they stop me from walking under ladders or opening an umbrella in the house! So why is their who-doo all right, but my historically documented faith is not? Hypocrites! Who told you that you can be saved?
     
  9. KitemanSA Registered Senior Member

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    Actually, I was most precise with my language. The book is very WIDELY known ABOUT, but very poorly (i.e., very little) KNOWN. The oft misquoted text being just one small sample.

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  10. Sorcerer Put a Spell on you Registered Senior Member

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    That's a strange post, even by your standards. See the bold: do you have any links that support this? I thought the Religious Right managed to combine money, guns and religion? Tell me it ain't so.
     
  11. Sorcerer Put a Spell on you Registered Senior Member

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    Erm, refusing to walk under ladders is rather sensible, in case someone drops something on your head. And I always open a brolly indoors if it is wet: you should never fold up a wet brolly. I'm English so I know about brollies. And I'm an atheist and not at all superstitious, so you're wrong about that in at least one case, and probably plenty.

    Arne, even by your standards that is a pretty silly post.
     
  12. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    As Sorcerer just pointed out, it is quite rational to avoid walking under ladders to avoid having (at the very least) a can of paint fall on your head, and it is quite rational to open a wet umbrella after you bring it inside, so it will have time to dry off. On a rainy day the foyer in my company is full of umbrellas, opened against the wall, so they won't dribble all over the inside of our cars on the way home. Duh?

    We observe these customs not because they're superstitions, but because they're sensible. But... we don't avoid black cats (many of us have black cats living with us), we don't toss a pinch of salt over our shoulder if we spill the shaker, we don't carefully step over the joints in the sidewalk but are happy to step directly on them, and we don't plan our Springtime outdoor activities based on the behavior of a marmot/woodchuck/groundhog but rather check the forecast of the meteorological scientists.

    Precisely because it's not hoodoo (however fancifully you spell it).

    And I agree: although you've set the bar very low for yourself, this post is a real forehead-slapper even by your standards. If you want to be the class clown, go for it. But don't turn around then and try to pass yourself off as a sociologist.
     
  13. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    If anything, we are conditioned by the dominate culture, which is overwhelmingly religious. I make a point not to do anything superstitious. Not that they are atheists, but I've seen superstitious behavior in NASA scientists too. They should know better. Of course, if I were on, say, a fishing boat, and they had a superstitious ritual they all followed, I would follow it too, out of comradery with the crew. Because an atheist can also say, fuck it, it doesn't matter if I do or if I don't, might as well be polite.
     
  14. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    Any person who claims that athiests are superstitious cannot know many atheists.

    None of my atheist friends are superstituous.

    All the superstituous people I know profess to believe in some religion.
     
  15. KitemanSA Registered Senior Member

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    Is that because you define belief in religion as superstitious?
     
  16. Ahriman Registered Member

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    Let me answer your question about currency being evil with an analogy. Two people, Joe and Bob, are farmers in an isolated town. Joe really wants some corn from Bob's farm, while Bob wants Apples. Sadly, Joe grows pears, which Bob hates. Without currency, both farmers would be left unable to exchange goods. However, with a worthless piece of green cloth, Joe can obtain corn, and give Bob the means to buy apples in the process. Basically, currency allows for complex transactions that form the basis of our economy. It is an aid in both technological progress and economic improvement.
     
  17. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    I posted:
    KitemanSA asked:
    My late mother's family was Catholic as were many of her friends. All were superstitiuos in various ways.

    My mother would not shop in a store if she could not go out through the entrance door & had a few other odd beliefs. some of her sisters & friends had the black cat syndrome. Others had different superstitions.

    I know some believers who are not superstituous & do not consider religious belief to be a superstition although is seems related. Religious belief seems to me to be due to brain washing & cowardice.

    Homo Sapiens seems to want to have explanations for the phenomena he/she observes. In primitive times, there was belief in tree spiirts, water spirits, et cetera. Each spirit was viewed as responisble for some unexplainable phenomenon. Superstitions seem to me to be a related mental process, often made up in hopes of controlling the spirits. Throwing salt over your shoulder is one such mechanism.
     
  18. Curious Thought Registered Member

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    The main problem I foresee is the ability to deter the natural human mechanism which is greed and selfishness. It is hardwired to every Human since birth so you would need a method of repression. Maybe you get the whole nation drugged even more so then we all ready do. In honesty though theres virtually no way to change the instinctual craving to perceive oneself as "better" and "higher" then others in society so I don't see any form of equality in any societies in the near future at least until we as a species go through enough generations to evolve and realize higher thinking then oneself.
     
  19. coalikesindesi Registered Member

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    We need means to gauge value of exchange.

    New Agers and related people deny this, but then this is the only reason currency was invented and exists today.
     
  20. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Money was invented simply for the purpose of recording transactions and debts, as civilizations became so large and complex that memory and handshakes couldn't do the job anymore. In fact it was merchants, not priests, scholars or kings, who invented the technology of written language.
     
  21. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    Although money itself is an emergent property or feature of civilization most beneficial and sorely missed when it is destroyed or made non-operational in some manner,

    formal and official currency might be viewed as a somewhat different, more sophisticated establishment - bringing with it some temptations to self-destructive or community destroying behavior all its own, not a feature of simple money, that cause it to be viewed with suspicion and wariness by essentially all sources of wisdom we have.

    Compound interest on loans of money, for example (what the Bible originally meant by "usury") is a common feature of the establishment of currency that is routinely condemned by the wise - and looking around at things, one can't help but suspect they are on to something.
     
  22. Israel.Goldstein Registered Member

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    I think European socialism is the best way to go.
     
  23. Jeeves Valued Senior Member

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    Currency isn't evil, any more than a jackhammer a hydrogen bomb is evil: they're just tools. In the hands of evil people, or ignorant babies or delusional lunatics, all tools are likely to be harmful.
    But what's the sense of taking away one potentially harmful implement from a lunatic in a hardware store?
     

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