God of Money

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.

The villagers seeing that there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest, and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort. He further announced that he would now buy at $20. This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again.

Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it.

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when the man returns from the city, you can sell them to him for $50 each."

The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys. Then they never saw the man nor his assistant again; only monkeys everywhere!

Now you have a better understanding of how the stock market works.

Just say "YES"

¥ € $For the God of Money, also called the God of Greed and the God of Power, its symbols are usually regional. They include all major currencies.

In the case of lower deities such as sex, tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, religious zeal can become addictive. But for Money, there is no 'can'; addiction is certain. Other features of the religion include:

Adherents (investors) come from all walks of life. There is no discrimination on the basis of sex, socio-economic banding, income, health, or affiliations to other religions.
There are various sects, such as Savings and the complementary Credit.
The prophets (stock exchange dealers), priests (bankers) and their deacons (financial advisors) preach through the Good Book (internet, magazines and newspaper articles) extolling the virtues of Good Works (risk).
Forgivness and love are lacking for believers and true followers. 'Progress' is considered synonymous with 'good', without stopping to think what 'progress' means.
Although irrational, it is by far the most popular and widespread religion in the world - much more popular than rational religions such as Christianity and Islam. "For the love of money is the root of all evil" (1 Tim. 6:10) "And he is violent in his love of wealth" (Qur'an 100:8).

Andrew Carnegie, a billionaire and one of the richest men in history, was once asked, "How much money is enough?"

He replied, "Just a little bit more."

The worshippers stand silently in line, as though awaiting their turn at the confession-box. Then one by one, they move forward to pray at the ATM.

Run the words 'bundles of banknotes' through your brain and you create a strange psychological effect. Similarly with theistic religions; just the name 'Allah', 'Tian Zhu', 'Ek Onkar', 'Jehovah', and so on, can alleviate emotional pain - even physical pain in some cases.

The single word 'cash' can take make us feel happy; which is all rather strange, since money is only an instrument that mankind has created to make economic life more efficient.

There is no mystery about why we should feel in awe when we think about mankind's Creator, but why does the man-made financial medium of exchange create such excitement? So much passion that we envy others who have more than we do? Why does loss of this man-made thing create such depression? So much angst that some commit suicide?

Call money an anthropological aid for survival, if you wish, or perhaps a representation of the reward for work we have done. Material wealth is not in itself 'wrong' of course, and it enables us to give something to the poor¹. But let's not fool ourselves into thinking that tithing or tossing some surplus cash into a collecting plate satisfies our obligation to fellow members of society (see the Widow's Mite).

If we are looking to succeed, then rather than the acquisition of money, status or power, why not let eternal life be our benchmark?

With material things, God has blessed most of us with more than we need. In material things, that makes us rich. But this wealth gives us no security for tomorrow. Only God controls tomorrow.

1:	The greatest good we can do for others is not only to share our riches with them, but to reveal to them their own.