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Which is more important money or religion ?

Is Money More Important To Existence Than Religion ?


  • Total voters
    20

Kathryn

It was on fire when I laid down on it.
Unless you have gold or silver, which is pretty much universally accepted, money comes and goes, but religion sticks around, even after a person dies.

Think about Confederate War Bonds, for example. Think about people unable to buy a loaf of bread with a wheelbarrow full of cash, which was better used for kindling. It happens. The stock market could crash for instance, along with many peoples' retirement funds. or savings. Also, did you know that banks can "pay" FDIC protected funds with used office furniture or equipment?
 
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Alien826

No religious beliefs
I voted for money, but that was because I was answering the question literally. What is more important to existence. For all this "money has no value", that's only true if you consider it as a piece of paper. It's a medium of exchange, without which we would be back to a barter economy. "I'll give you three of my chickens for your goat". Hopefully it's obvious that no modern economy could survive (and without it we would have difficulty existing) using barter.

Apart from that, money has value because we all agree that it does. That may seem tenuous, but in reality it's a pretty strong support for value. I think we all agree (maybe without thinking it through) that we have to continue with that agreement.

If you want to extend it a bit further, money (the ability to do business with each other) has huge power to do good (and harm, but let's look at good). A person with no wealth (as measured by money) is probably very miserable. He can't get any of the basic necessities of life without producing them himself or relying on the charity of others. Give him some money and he gets less and less miserable as the amount you give him increases. This runs out after a while and it gets to the point where more wealth does not produce less misery.

Religion can be valuable too, but I submit that it needs a stable society to exist, other than individually. And that stable society needs money to be able to interact commercially with each other.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Unless you have gold or silver, which is pretty much universally accepted, money comes and goes, but religion sticks around, even after a person dies.

Think about Confederate War Bonds, for example. Think about people unable to buy a loaf of bread with a wheelbarrow full of cash, which was better used for kindling. It happens. The stock market could crash for instance, along with many peoples' retirement funds. or savings. Also, did you know that banks can "pay" FDIC protected funds with used office furniture or equipment?
Religions disappear about as often as countries.

For instance, the Millerites had their "stock market crash" - the Great Disappointment - not too long before those Confederate War Bonds became worthless.
 
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Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
You can live a great life without religion but you most certainly cannot live a great life without money.
Depends on how you understand religion. My understanding of religion is such that no human lacks a religion and it is impossible for any human to not have one - it's endemic to the human condition. I know of no human (the cognitively impaired notwithstanding) who does not ask and address existential questions of life and being and develop a lifeway for themselves that assists in relating to themselves and others. It's mandatory to exist and survive. Money? Not so much. Currency wasn't even invented in human history until fairly recently.
 

Alien826

No religious beliefs
Depends on how you understand religion. My understanding of religion is such that no human lacks a religion and it is impossible for any human to not have one - it's endemic to the human condition. I know of no human (the cognitively impaired notwithstanding) who does not ask and address existential questions of life and being and develop a lifeway for themselves that assists in relating to themselves and others. It's mandatory to exist and survive. Money? Not so much. Currency wasn't even invented in human history until fairly recently.

That's a very interesting line of thought.

I can only submit my own experience. I did spend most of my life wondering about these things. I investigated many religions and rejected one after another as it failed to meet my standards for logic and evidence. Buddhism survived, but as I practiced it (briefly) it was more about self help than the supernatural.

Finally I have come to the conclusion that, to a high degree of probability, this world as we experience it is all there is and there is nothing waiting for me after I die, and nothing (outside my self) helping me in my daily life, and it's up to me to make the best of it. Would you call that a religion?
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Depends on how you understand religion. My understanding of religion is such that no human lacks a religion and it is impossible for any human to not have one - it's endemic to the human condition.

I can't think of any coherent understanding of "religion" where this would be true.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
You can live a great life without religion but you most certainly cannot live a great life without money.
I have a great religion and a lot of money, more than I'll ever need or spend. Those make life better, but they don't guarantee a great life.
Love is what makes life great, and I am not referring to romantic love.

I would add that good health, mental, emotional and physical, is also very important because without it you cannot have a great life.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
I just don't know how anyone can talk about "religion" so generically.

Much of what is called "religion" is all-out detrimental and should be avoided outright.

Much is not.
 
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