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Why I do not believe that the love of money is the root of all evil
Posted by mpschriel • 8/28/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: happiness, money, success
The way I see it is that money in itself is not the problem, nor is the love of money. It’s the believe people have that money will solve all their problems. This can happen to people with a rich mindset but also to those with a poor one. They believe in an illusion that money will make them happy:
patrickschriel.com/2009/08/27/why-i-do-not-believe-that-the-love-of-money-i...
User Comments
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Great blog post. Lots of good points, particularly the concept of "mastery." It really is all about knowledge and responsibility, not appearances or fantasy beliefs.
I've always observed that money seems to make people "more" of who they already are, as if it's a function of exaggeration. If you are a wise and generous person, having money will make you more generous. If you are already a snide show-off, well... your show-off-iness will expand. If you're a saver, you'll save more of what you have. Spender who's always broke? You'll wind up broke again, just after buying more expensive stuff, LOL...
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I never thought of it that way, but now that I have considered it, I think you are right.
My late husband's brother was a self-made millionaire. By all accounts, before he made his money, he was a crass, rude, condescending, imperious boor who drank to much and had an undeservedly high opinion of himself. When I met him, some years after he had made his money, he was a crass, rude, condescending, imperious boor who drank too much expensive red wine and used his Mercedes, Harleys, designer shoes and clothes, and McMansion in the wine country to "prove" his high opinion of himself was deserved.
On the other hand, my maternal grandparents were self-made millionaires. They had always saved and invested and as their wealth grew, so did their saving and investing. Their only extravagance was to build a custom home (which they lived in until they died) and my grandmother's new Cadillac every 3 years. My grandfather donated respectable sums of money to different churches in their small town (his attitude was "it's the same god, no matter which church you sit in"), the Lion's Club and other charitable organizations. He had always donated, but the more money he had, the more he gave.
In both cases, the people simply became more of what they had been before. I think you are right...money doesn't change people, it just makes them more of what they really are. Brilliant!
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Very true. Anyone with a love for money is doomed to have lack in several areas in life. Money is nothing more then the material means we use to trade for service and product.
After 3 months of learning the universal principles, I am now understanding what money really is, and am now able to attract it, as I undserstand its proper use. It is the misconceptions people have as reality that is holding them back.
shrimpsey.blogspot.com -
Money is the illusion of happiness. There are others as well: love, success, beauty, fame, knowledge, power, sex. But only happiness is happiness.-
Applause!
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If you lived in my country you wouldn't say that! Where the salary is less than 500€ and and where a pack of cigarettes costs 4€!! So money can solve many problems, not all sure!-
@Anthony: Maybe I should've said wealth is the illusion of happiness. Naturally one needs some money to take care of basic needs.
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like cigs...... -
I'm not saying we should all be rich, but in the minimum all have the same equality and the same rights| not one guy be rich as hell, and the other not have money to eat, that's really wrong!
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i see what you are saying, and I agree. What country, may I ask?
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Anthony, I see you point. Getting out of the poverty of the countries we live in can be a big struggle. Not everyone has the fortune to be raised in a wealthy country.
What I try put forward here is that a rich mindset is of better use than a poor one. Or in other words: A positive attitude towards money will help you more than a negative one. -
I'm from Portugal, We are happy people, most of the time we don't think about money, only we could have a little more, it would help! We have money to buy the primary needs, and sometimes to buy something that it's not needed, (We have huge problem with credits, portuguese spent to much money, when then don't have iT! But i think this isn't just Portugal Hope I'm right) and then here it's worse because of the corruption(eg: One of the biggest banks in Portugal had a hole of 800 millions Euros, oh, did I metion no one knows where the damm money is?) Because of that, and many other aspects, we're a joke country, but we have a relative good life in here! Long messange sorry!
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I found it interesting that the whole focus of your post is about "what's in it for me"--your analysis of the role of money is all about what does and doesn't make your (generic "you") own life better or more to your liking. That changes the concept considerably, since the original line is Biblical, and in that context selfishness in any form is discouraged.-
its the age that we live in
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MadameX,
I didn't write the post with a what's in it for me attutide. At least that was not my intention. That's not how I see things, I suggest you read some other posts on my blog. I only say that money itself (or loving it) is not a bad thing. Money is an instrument, a tool. If you use it well, you can do a lot of good with it.
Worshipping money is another thing. As I said, as soon as we see money as the one thing that will solve our problems, our ticket to happiness, we're off track.
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"Money is the root of all evil" has to be one of the funniest and most awful mistranslations of the bible ever. It goes "Money is the root of all KINDS of evil" (NKJV) and you know its a mistranslation because the gospel makes it clear that anything that goes against loving thy God and loving thy neighbor as thyself, REGARDLESS of it's source be it hatred instilled in to you by your parents, sexual lust, idolatry, 50s-style conformism or mafia-type family ties (Luke 14:26), or just plain having a cold heart, is evil. The fact that it came from fear, a lack of dignity, distrust of God et cetera really don't matter much, nor does it the other way.
@MadameX: Ummmm, define selfishness. "Love thy neighbor AS thyself" implies very strongly that it is out of your own dignity and self-love that you CAN love others. Otherwise, it would just say "Love thy neighbor." And don't tell me it's an aspiration because you will find there are plenty of people who hate themselves in this world and it prevents them from being able to appreciate God or anyone else, as once you hate yourself the greatest gift becomes a waste. Further, if it was entirely about what you did to others there would be no problem with sexual immorality, swearing, or lewdness as, provided consent, you'd just be spreading the fun around. It is exactly BECAUSE you are supposed to love yourself and walk in honor and integrity that these commandments matter.
Further, "how does it profit a man" are very common words in the Gospel, as are "heavenly treasure," "spiritual gifts," "If I prepare one for you," and "I've chosen you" and other kind of Texas machismo kind of language.-
Jeremy, it was Christ himself who said that the two great commandments were to love God and love one another, and that everything else would flow from those. Apparently he disagrees with you that random sex, etc. are acts of love.
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LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF.
Not love only thy neighbor, not love only thyself, love both. That's what that says. You only read half of it. And that's why lewdness is a sin. Not because the lady didn't enjoy it or ask for it but because it's so fundamentally undignified and hurtful to self-love, and, in the end, her self-love that you shouldn't do it.
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People do believe that money will solve all of there problems but it won't. Some believe that it can buy happiness but it can't, but it what it will do is create evil. People will do anything for money therfore "Money is the root of all evil," but I don't agree with the saying that "the love of money is the root of all evil.-
No. As many crimes are committed over women as our committed over money. As many crimes are committed out of hate and resentment as over money. As many crimes are committed out of GOOD INTENTIONS as over money. And honestly, most people won't do "anything for money," that's a minority. I'm not saying humanity is a wonderful critter, but this idea that money is the only thing that motivates people is absurd.
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and let's not forget religious zealotry...
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But that's debatable, because was it really their religious "belief" or what they were using their religious "belief" to excuse.
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do you think that teenage suicide bombers are "using religion as an excuse"?
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No, but the ones who have brainwashed them to do it have.
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I don't think it is unthinkable that the brainwashers are brainwashed. In fact, it might be argued that organized religion is a society of mutual brainwashedness.
I am probably a bit too cynical to beleive in such purity of intention though -
The brainwashers may have been brainwashed, but if you go far enough up the line, you will find leaders hungry for power.
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Adding to this discussion. If there is one root of all evil it is probably the lack of compassion towards others; not being able to see things from a different point of view and think of other as inferior.
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That's much closer, although I would go beyond that and say that it's not just compassion but all aspects of love including respect, reverence where reverence is due, and higher understanding and social foresight.
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I've often considered the "money is the root of all evil" saying & after some analysis I came to the conclusion that human insecurity is the true root of all evil. The theory has yet to be proven wrong. -
but in that belief you have mentioned emotions are involved. if the emotion is in some way positive and always tagging in your inner self that getting the money will make you happy then that is a classic case of the love of money and that feeling can cause you to do evil. so still it is not the belief that led to to evil but the belief created the emotion, love that lead to the evil. understand? thats my piece in this -
You're exactly right, but what St. Paul meant by that statement is what you're talking about. We are allowed to have abundance, but when you allow it to be your idol, then that where problems come in.
So the "love of money" that Paul was referring to is actually the "lust" of money.
Either way, you're on the money. Pun intended.
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