Money is the root of all evil

The greed caused by pursuit of money is damaging. Yes, because...

Yes, because at its most corrupt, the greed for money can motivate to murder. It can make you embezzle, swindle, got to war, and even colonise other countries to control their resources. The need to have the most money and so think the most power is a dark force. Money and wealth have been the most explosive divide in history. Revolutions have generally involved the poor fighting for their rights and a share of the money from the minority rich. The burning desire from corporations and banking institutions to make more money for themselves and shareholders recently brought the world close to the brink of financial collapse. No, because
This is a very sad image that has been painted of the human race. Not all people are money grabbing bankers. in fact the majority of people are good-hearted, who are prepared to give away increasingly small small amounts of spare cash to help charities. They are willing to help. You can't blame corporations and bankers for doing what they are supposed to - and that is make money and turn a profit. In all exchanges someone is selling a service and someone is buying a service. There is no rule that says you cannot make money from the transaction. What we can do though is to change the environment in which banks operate. For example laws stipulating how much profit can be made, how much of profit needs to go back to society. We can take responibility for our own destinies instead of money leading us by the nose. As we develop technologically, research and development which leads to breakthroughs in all spheres of society cost money. The companies spending that money should surely be entitled to a return on their investment. Without an incentive, there may be fall off in development.

All the Yes points

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

The greed caused by pursuit of money is damaging. spiritual damage there are alternatives to money Family damage MONEY CAUSES 90% OF CRIME

All the No points

1. Money can be donated to a good cause. 2. some evil clearly nothing to do with money

3. 4. 5. 6. Hello,

Money is not the root of all evil. The lack of money is the root of all evil. More Money represents positive value Money is the end product of what you did

Have you ever heard that saying, "Money is the root of evil"? I thought it would be interesting to take a deeper look at that idea to see where the truth is within it. No doubt it's been the source of many a debate. I think it's safe to say that money, in and of itself, is not the root of evil. Money is a convenience, a medium of exchange. Pretty simple, I think. But if we consider that the idea of "money" in that statement is referring to something else, is a metaphor, it starts to make much more sense. In that statement (in its original form), "money" was referring to the belief in my ability to add something to my essential being... to add to my character... to make myself into a greater person... to be able to add or "purchase" -- through my achievement of some self-willed desire -- a greater, stronger, more reputable me. For example, deluded humanity often thinks that if we win the respect and admiration of other people, something of value has been added to our character, when in fact, the only thing that has been added is an imagined strength. Nothing real at all has been transferred into our possession. So now the natural question that comes to mind is, "Why would believing that I can turn myself into a greater person be the source of evil?" Well, first we should probably ask the question, "What is evil?" Contrary to popular thought, things like murder, jealousy, greed, revenge, etc., are not evil. They are the product -- the fruit -- that evil produces. Evil is a far subtler, virtually completely unseen dynamic in the human consciousness. And because it is unseen... and because it is the foundation of things we believe to be our virtues, the acts of evil will continue on forever. To put it simply, evil is anything that dis-integrates human life... anything that perpetuates falsehood... anything that compromises the human being's opportunity to fulfill what it was put here to do. In this case, it is anything that creates and strengthens the belief that I have a separate "self" that operates and acts

independent of the life around me. That I am a totally autonomous human "satellite" passing through life, and passing by other independent autonomous "satellites" who themselves are free-choosing entities independent from the rest of life. The reality is, no such independence exists. It is One Life unfolding upon Itself. Just as the five fingers of the hand seem to wiggle independently from a single impulse of thought, so too are the individuals of humanity powered by a single undivided Life. So now we can return to the statement, "Money is the root of all evil." Translated, it says, "Believing that I can add one thing to my essential being to make myself better than my brother is to disintegrate the peace inherent in realizing that I and my brother are One."

Is money the root of all evil?

It is a common saying that money is the root of all evil. According to the Random House Dictionary of Proverbs and Sayings, the phrase first appeared in English circa 1000 A.D. The saying originated in the New Testament. For the love of money is the root of all evil. Timothy, 6:10. Its obviously one of those sayings that has as great deal of staying power, having been around for two thousand years and still going strong. But how fair is it to blame all evil, or even any evil, on a medium of exchange? I think it would be a much more accurate statement to say that the root of most evil is mans desire for status; either greed to increase ones status, or jealousy over losing in the status game to others. Money is the most obvious measure of ones status, so its easy to confuse the two, but they are certainly not the same thing at all. Money is just one way of keeping score. Blaming money for evil is like blaming the scoreboard for the baseball game. Its easy to point to many evils committed for the sake of status in which money wasnt involved at all. For example, figure skater Tonya Harding conspired to have Nancy Kerrigan assaulted so she wouldnt be able to compete in the Olympics. Now its true that there is some money involved in winning an Olympic medal, but Olympic athletes are mostly motivated simply by the desire to be the champ, and that status that brings them in their own world of athletics. Then theres the story of O.J. Simpson, who killed his ex-wife and the man he thought was her boyfriend. O.J. was motivated by jealousy over the fact that some other man was more successful with his ex-wife than he was. Jealousy over women is a very common cause of evil. It has

nothing to do with money, but everything to do with status and being jealous of another mans greater success with a particular woman. One should never expect the Bible to be consistent, and sure enough, it isnt when it comes to evil. One of the very first acts of evil committed in the Bible has nothing to do with money. In the Book of Genesis, Cain kills his brother Abel because he is jealous that Abels offering to God was better received than his own. He is jealous that Abel has achieved higher status than him. Idealists wonder why we cant live in a world where everyone is equal, and therefore where there is no greed or jealousy resulting from status differences. Unfortunately, they overlook the fact that our desire to have higher status than others is part of our human nature, and nothing can change it. The goal of communism was that an economic system would be created where no one would be rich or poor, where everyone would have equal wealth. The problem is that such a system is impossible. Mans desire to rise ahead of others is too strong, and money is not the only thing that man competes over. And because all men are not equal in ability and other characteristics, no matter what the playing field is, some will rise ahead and others will fall behind, and those who are behind will feel intense jealousy, even if the competition is about something other than money. One might even say that communism itself is a great evil, and the root of communism is jealousy on the part of its adherents that others have more money than they do. Desire for money, or greed for money if you prefer to use stronger language (reminiscent of a scene from the movie Wall Street), is a good thing when people play by the rules, and when their desire for money and status results in better ways of doing business and in inventions that help people and that make the world a better place. Desire for money and status is only bad when people do bad things in order to obtain what they desire. And even then, its not greed thats really bad, but the person whos doing the bad things whos bad. The goal of a just government should not be to punish people for being successful in obtaining money, but to create rules to ensure that competition for money results in good for society.