Love of money is 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

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 thier 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

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 gonna 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

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

You mean some loosers still really believe this pathetic excuse ? [:D]
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.
[;)]

Live long and prosper.

Hurkyl

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

Tom Mattson

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

That depends on whether or not the bible is correct.

BoulderHead

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. [6)]

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.

drag

Greetings !
That's the kind of ridiculous propoganda 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...[:D]

But, if you wan'na remain poor... I can live with that.[:D]

Peace and long life.