Is money really the root of all evil?

[Saint]

I love $, but the bible says love of money is evil, hence, i must be evil ? Correct?

Money is so important, without it i am going to starve, together with my children.

I love money, and sometimes do feel Greedy for it,
is it OK according to social norm ? [?]

 

[Hurkyl]

Money is so important, without it i am going to starve, together with my children.

You don't have to love money to have money.

 

[Saint]

love of money can motivate you to earn money, work harder, study harder to get better job.

 

[Hurkyl]

And why did you get the "better" job? Because it earns you more money?

 

[Pyrite]

I think overall what is meant by "love of money is evil" is that many people will do anything for it, ignoring all else. People tend to think that if they were given millions of dollars, all their problems would be solved. Really, it isn't love of money, but love of power (which money represents) that can be said to be evil. (should such a thing as "evil" actually exist.)

 

[Zantra]

I think pyrite was the closest. Money itsself is not evil. And money does not corrupt someone. If they are virtiuous they will not be corrupt inspite of the money. If they are not virtuous they will fall to some other vice, even if it's not money.

Money cannot directly by happiness. But it is necessary to sustain us. So the more well sustained we are, the less we worry, and that is our true motiviation, not the money itsself. We crave the things that go with money, but we do not crave money as an object- at least not most of us.

The saying does come from the deeds that money inspires. If you desire it to feed yourself, or your family, that is not selfish. But how far would you go for a lot of money? Would you sell your child for a billion dollars? Would you kill someone for money, no matter how much? Would you sacrifice your morals, your believes in the name of money? That is where the saying comes from.

It is not a knock on the object of money, but a comment on the struggle between the material and the immaterial. Between love and cold hard cash. Between virtues and wealth. Between the things that money can't buy, and all the things that it can.

 

[jammieg]

External control can be bought, but control within is priceless.
Not evil but typically unproductive if for the wrong reasons, I like the security of money myself but have also lost money and other things when blinded by greed or hunger for power.

 

[Iacchus32]

Actually, when you consider money is the "bloodstream" of the economy, then it would have to be that those "blood sucking vampires" are evil!

In which case you have to watch out for those who would do "anything" for blood!

 

[megashawn]

as for the part about if you have no money you'll starve this is not true although society would not make this easy

Hmm. I'd like to understand this. No money = No buy food from grocery store.

No money = no own land to grown own food

No money = if you want to eat, your going to have to steal it.

Of course there are things like welfare, but only certain people can get it. I know when I was down and out, like 15 cents in my pocket, living in my car, I didnt qualify for welfare.


I'd done a topic like this sometime in the past, not sure if it was pf 2 or not. Basically, its not so much the love of money, but more so making money your priority in life.

My dad had a cool saying, said "Ahh, its just money, I can always get more."

Which is true. The question is what are you willing to do to get it?

 

[Gale]

Well, i'd just like to say that the bible isn't the final word on matters of good and evil. Actually, it seems everyone refers to the bible a bit too much. it's just another religious text with just as much credibility as the next imo.

 

[Owl]

evil

One thing you have to remember is that the bible was writing a long time ago, when there wasn't as much people as there are today. So then love for money would be considered evil because only those who have it earned it by cheating, corruption, or crimes. Those who didn't lived by hunting and farms. So the life of a non-materialistic person would see that and quote it.
But as time went on and mostly the corrupt survived we became a custom to money. It has become a normal thing. The idea of forging metal into coins and trees into bills to control the growing population and keeping order by a government was an excellent idea to maintain power.
So then i would agree that love for money was evil, but now i would not. Money has evolved into our cultures and daily lives and is essential to our survival. Just think of the chaos if we all decided to rid of this evil by hunting and farming our food. Animals will be slaughtered quick in an uncontrolled rate and fights for land would end in brutality just to have farm land.
Life is all about adaptation and we adapted with the idea of money. Although we adapted to the evil dollar it is still tainted with evil. That's why the government created laws to control its evil. For the makers of evil can find ways to control it.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by Zantra
It is not a knock on the object of money, but a comment on the struggle between the material and the immaterial. Between love and cold hard cash. Between virtues and wealth. Between the things that money can't buy, and all the things that it can.

You mean some loosers still really believe this pathetic excuse ?
Money is the primary means to achieve EVERYTHING that is
possible or impossible to achieve without it too, it's
not the only means but certainly the most powerfull tool we have.

Originally posted by Gale17
Well, i'd just like to say that the bible isn't the final word on matters of good and evil. Actually, it seems everyone refers to the bible a bit too much. it's just another religious text with just as much credibility as the next imo.

Live long and prosper.

 

[Hurkyl]

There's a difference between loving money and using money.

 

[quantumdude]

Originally posted by Saint
I love $, but the bible says love of money is evil,

No,it says that love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. A root is not the same as a tree.

hence, i must be evil ? Correct?

That depends on whether or not the bible is correct.

 

[BoulderHead]

Originally posted by Tom
No,it says that love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. A root is not the same as a tree.

I was wondering who would finally mention that, and the entire passage from Timothy should be read (not just that little piece of it) to see what was being got at;

Timothy 6:10
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

[edit]
So I gather that loving money is actually ok... so long as you don't err from the faith.

 

[Zantra]

Originally posted by drag
You mean some loosers still really believe this pathetic excuse ?
Money is the primary means to achieve EVERYTHING that is
possible or impossible to achieve without it too, it's
not the only means but certainly the most powerfull tool we have.

If you can't be happy with your current station in life, then chances are you'll never be happy no matter how rich you become. That's a truth. Weather you accept that or not is up to you. Rich people are not happier, they just have more money.

 

[drag]

Greetings !

Originally posted by Zantra
If you can't be happy with your current station in life, then chances are you'll never be happy no matter how rich you become. That's a truth. Weather you accept that or not is up to you. Rich people are not happier, they just have more money.

That's the kind of ridiculous propaganda that
religion and the masses are lead into believing.
Otherwise there would be chaos. I suppose there
may be a small fraction of individuals like the
above, but in regards to most people that is
simply ridiculous.

Believe me with a nice round number like 10, 50 or
100 million which would allow me to travel all over the
world freely and occasionaly work on some projects I
would be totally happy. And if these various projects
get me more money it won't be something I was really
craving for but rather a side bonus (and I sure
won't be doing any overtimes - a couple of
hours work per day ). At that stage
I would be primarily concerned with having
fun - extreme sports, travelling, new technologies,
wild life conservation, writing popular philosophy
and/or sci-fi books, getting my name in big letters
into the history books and other insignificant stuff...

But, if you wan'na remain poor... I can live with that.

Peace and long life.

 

[Zantra]

Originally posted by drag
Greetings !

That's the kind of ridiculous propaganda that
religion and the masses are lead into believing.
Otherwise there would be chaos. I suppose there
may be a small fraction of individuals like the
above, but in regards to most people that is
simply ridiculous.

Believe me with a nice round number like 10, 50 or
100 million which would allow me to travel all over the
world freely and occasionaly work on some projects I
would be totally happy. And if these various projects
get me more money it won't be something I was really
craving for but rather a side bonus (and I sure
won't be doing any overtimes - a couple of
hours work per day ). At that stage
I would be primarily concerned with having
fun - extreme sports, travelling, new technologies,
wild life conservation, writing popular philosophy
and/or sci-fi books, getting my name in big letters
into the history books and other insignificant stuff...

But, if you wan'na remain poor... I can live with that.

Peace and long life.

No you're misunderstanding my intent. If I could become instantly rich. say through the lottery, or inheritance, that's one thing. I would absolutely enjoy it. But for me, I've seen what striving for the allmighty buck can do to people. Peeople working 90-100 hours a week, pushing themselves harder and hard. And yes, they eventually do achieve some degree of wealth. Not the type you describe, but certainly financial security. But they never get to enjoy it. They are so busy maintaining that lifestyle that they never get to enjoy it. And then, they complain that they don't have enough money. See ith's inherent human nature to always live just above our means. So they're always spending just a little bit more than they can affrd. it's really just a viscious cycle based on pieces of paper that are only made valuable by how society defines it. If tomorrow the government declared all paper money worthless and said bottlecaps were the new currency, you'd see a mad scramble to collect bottlecaps.

I'm not speaking about accepting poverty, but how rich do you need to be? 10 million? well what if no mattter how hard you worked you could only achieve 1 million? would you ceaselessly work to push yourself above that 1 milliom mark? what are you willing to sacrifice? your friends? your family? your happiness? Your free time?
If you give up happiness to achieve wealth, isn't it a self-defeating purpose?

 

[eNtRopY]

Originally posted by Saint
I love $, but the bible says love of money is evil, hence, i must be evil ? Correct?

Money is so important, without it i am going to starve, together with my children.

I love money, and sometimes do feel Greedy for it,
is it OK according to social norm ? [?]

See this is the reason why Malaysians always annoy me. They try so damn hard to be Americans, yet they always fail miserably.

Look at her pathetically trying to cling to American religion and American capitalistic ideology... yet she misses the fundamental points completely. I blame western imperialism.

You've got your own culture. Use it!

eNtRopY

 

[jammieg]

Money can be tempting like stealing, we start off stealing just a candy bar and then maybe 2 candies and then a bicycle and then one day end up in prison and don't understand how we got there like Martha Stewart may find, or President Clinton feels justified in finding a need to lie under oath. It's all the same, we cross a little line and get away with it and keep going and going until one day we get a rude awakening and realize that in taking advantage of others we may have been destroying ourselves in some way that can't really be described but we've all experienced and have a feeling about that it's just not right. It's so much easier to take from others in all kinds of ways, but when I put myself in the position of a cold hearted and selfish person it feels terrible and I suspect it is a kind of prison to a degree that is difficult for the mind to grasp and far more difficult for the mind if in it. So I don't think love of money is evil, but so tempting to many to take advantage of others in the pursuit of it, or lie cheat and steal to get it. It is rewarding to lie and cheat and steal in the short term but in the long term it makes things worse by law and possibly by skewing of reality of the individual. I've seen a person so selfish that to them everyone and everything was merely a means to be taken advantage of(even owed of) in whatever way possible for their own gain, this person also believes everyone else is trying to do the same thing to them, this person suffers severely from depression and anxiety and generally poor judgemnet...I wonder if this is partly how it works and that to try to present this to such a person results in complete denial because maybe to realize it is to admit great error and would demand great effort to change, maybe it is not as bad is it sounds I'm really not sure.
Nature equips us with a conscience that reflexively we would see ourselves and the world as we choose to see others and the world, it is too beneficial a function of the brain not to exist.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by Zantra
If you give up happiness to achieve wealth, isn't it
a self-defeating purpose?

It is, in that case. But if you're not happy because
you can't do the things you want due to lack of
money and thus you're abviously unhappy then
it's a different story.

Live long and prosper.

 

[Zantra]

Originally posted by drag
It is, in that case. But if you're not happy because
you can't do the things you want due to lack of
money and thus you're abviously unhappy then
it's a different story.

Live long and prosper.

Some people choose to be happy inspite of their surroundings, not because of them. I am one of those people. The things I find happiness in reach far beyond money. I am not a miserable person in the least. I simply find contentment in the many things that most people take for granted. Would I still be happy with 10 million bucks? No doubt. But at least I don't let the money control me. That is after all the question. Do you control life, or does life control you?

Drag I think you have not yet found those things in life that money cannot buy. The things that are so valuable, you'd give up 10 million in a heartbeat just to have them. And that is the true happiness. You may be cynical about it. But once you've had them, you wouldn't want to let them go. And if you say you would, then you've not truly had them.

 

[BoulderHead]

To me happiness is state of mind, not a state of economics.
It is true that money makes things easier, can keep you alive in certain instances, and let's you buy all the material goodies which nearly everyone craves (but they must become aware these goodies exist, first), but people are rarely satisfied with what they have and owning a $1M home might actually start bringing you down after a few months of envying your neighbor who owns a $5M home.
It is possible to be happy and poor just as much as it is possible to rich and miserable. The economic status might change, but the body chemistry can stay the same.

[edit]
for clarity

 

[Royce]

Drag, it's obvious that you do not love money but would love to be able to do the things that having money would let you buy and do.

That is the critical difference. Love of money itself or love of what money buys. We become slaves of what we want most and what we own. Remember the words "Freedom is just another word for having nothing left to lose."
Do we own our house or does our house own us? Do we own our money or does money own us. To you money means freedom as id does to most of us.
To those who love money, money is the end in itself and there can never be enough because money after all is nothing more than a symbol of faith in its worth. It is only paper or metal or electrons, It has no worth other than what we agree to give it.

If we serve our master, in this case money, we cannot serve ourseves, our society or if you believe it our God. We have enslaved ourselves to that which has no intrinsic value or worth and that is what is evil.

 

[Meninger]

Our apparent and superficial needs arise merely as agents or methods of adapatation; for the purpose of self-preservation.

None of us truly "love" money. None of us intrinsically "love" anything. Maybe except what we were hardwired or born to love...such as family.

If you truly want to believe what the Bible is saying you should never take it literally.

 

[drag]

Greetings !

Originally posted by Zantra
You may be cynical about it. But once you've had them, you wouldn't want to let them go. And if you say you would, then you've not truly had them.

I'm not being cynical, rather... I disbelieve the possibility
that my true wishes could ever change in any fundumental
manner ever again. Purhaps I'm wrong... But, that's
the course upon which life appears to've set me and as
long as it stays that way I do not intend to accept defeat.

Hmm... I'm a lost case...

Live long and prosper.

 

[Zantra]

Originally posted by drag
Greetings !

I'm not being cynical, rather... I disbelieve the possibility
that my true wishes could ever change in any fundumental
manner ever again. Purhaps I'm wrong... But, that's
the course upon which life appears to've set me and as
long as it stays that way I do not intend to accept defeat.

Hmm... I'm a lost case...

Live long and prosper.

hmm.. no age listed... Well at some point in your life you will probably face a life-altering decision. You will have to choose between the material and the immaterial. That choice will likely guide the course of your life. We all face this decision at some point in our lives- weather we recognize it or not. It's how we deal with that issue and rise above adversity that determines our character. Maybe I'm coming off as altruistic, but that's just my viewpoint on life.

 

[Owl]

It's our nature to want more in our lives. Because keeping yourself alive this long is an act of wanting and getting more in your life. But the question is what do you want more of?
If the answers are mostly materials then when these materials that make up your life go away then maybe the drive of wanting more goes away and lead to you own distruction.
If the answer is love then when love goes away you might want to go with it.
What i want is unclear. I'm pretty sure i just want to understand my life and everything else.
I accept and expect just about anything out of life and welcome any pleasure or pain which is inevitable.

 

[newton1]

Originally posted by drag
It is, in that case. But if you're not happy because
you can't do the things you want due to lack of
money and thus you're abviously unhappy then
it's a different story.

Live long and prosper.

yes, we need money to sustain our dairy life
if we lack of money, maybe we will suffer
but it doesn't mean if we have more money we will get more happinese
just like oxygen, you need it
but if i give you more and more , will you be happy?
i don't think you have more money and you going to be happy
it is depend on how you use it and your satisfaction

 

[profligate]

In my belief that whole, "Money doesn't make people happy" stint is just something rich people tell everyone else to keep them from trying to get more money. It's persuasion and it seems to be working. I like my money. I wouldn't sell my body or family or anything like that for more of it but I'd miss it if it were gone. Money makes me happy. If only because having money means I can buy other things that make me happy. Having money gives me a sense of freedom. It has also taught me responsibility. I don't think money is the root of evil. I think people create their own "Evil" and therefore, money is a way of expressing that. But it's not a catalyst. Personally, I'm sick of people blaming things like money on their own choices. I'm not sure anyone is ever -tempted- to do anything. It's a choice. Everything is a choice. You make those choices on what you believe and that's that.
-Via.