We are subjected daily to all manner of scams, most of which are designed to separate us from our hard earned money. Work at home, fake charity’s, Ponzi/pyramid schemes, and lately, fake news. But, all these pale in comparison to the longest running (over 4000 years) scam of all: The existence of an ephemeral God (or Deity), possessing both spiritual and temporal properties. The original scam was: If you want to have an eternal life you better believe in our characterization of God (religion) and follow our rules. Eternal life (spiritual existence) can only be attained through belief and fealty to ‘our’ characterization of God, whether it is monotheistic Judaism, Christianity, Islam or some offshoot thereof. And, it is still going on, practiced by all manner of Rabbi’s, Ministers and Clerics.
To understand the origin of the scam, you need to understand the history of those ancient times. Law was just being codified — see Code of Hammurabi for an example. The economy was primarily agricultural. Gods and Kings were the human royalty and were accorded the most privileges and deference (sound familiar). A comparable analogy would be that today’s Kings would Mayors and Governors and Gods would be Presidents and Premiers. But, the Gods and Kings were still human and could be killed. Wars were common between the tribes with a winner take all attitude. The leaders of the losers (Gods) were usually killed, replaced by the winning God, and the losing tribe became the slaves of the winners.
At that time (circa 2000 BCE), the Jews (Hebrews) were a minor sect. The notion of a God with both temporal and spiritual qualities that they were espousing was attracting a lot of attention. And, since the vast majority (~99%) were still illiterate, the ‘Will of God’ was interpreted by the literate Rabbis and leaders. But at the heart of it was a ‘God’ that was unreachable and unavailable, and could not be killed. It had two effects: 1) it attracted an increasing number of followers, and 2) it drove the opponents/enemies with their human Gods nuts. They couldn’t either find or kill the Hebrew leader ‘God,’ which further strengthened the beliefs of the followers of Judaism. Belief supplanted reality and could be, and was exploited to further the selfish ends of the Ruling/Religious Class.
However, with every successful scam comes a Dark Side. In this case it was the intolerance of Judaism towards the other ‘religions,’ branding them as heathen, unwashed and unenlightened. The offspring of Judaism: Christianity and Islam; were even more intolerant to each other and other religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism. Right now, that intolerance between the Monotheistic religions is largely driving the conflicts we are presently seeing in the Middle East.
Another dark side of this development of the ephemeral ‘God’ was the ‘mandate’ of the 10% tithe to support the religious power structure: so they (the Rabbis) could interpret the scriptures and commandments of ‘God.’ Another scam that has endured to this day and props up the present day evangelists through the Prosperity Gospel.
Today, all of them, especially Christianity in America, are preaching the Prosperity Gospel that have morphed into profit centers for their leaders. Megachurches of Joel Osteen, Benny Hinn, James Dobson, Pat Robertson et al, preaching you will be saved if you donate to our church. Send $5. or $50… and we will pray for you, and guarantee you a spot in heaven. They are promising you eternal life based on a financial donation. Has anyone of these religious leaders ever made good on that claim? None the I know of.
On a parallel track the money changers (Pharisees) of the day were devising currencies for each local tribe, city or country. In order to do business in one country you needed to trade in that currency. Gold was the universal exchange currency because its durability. Traders were required to exchange their gold for the local currency to do business. When they left they needed to exchange the local currency back to gold. And, there was, of course, the required 2-3% transaction fee at both ends.
Imagine each of the 50 states having their own currency. If you were doing business in California you would need to exchange your Nevada dollars for California dollars minus a 3% transaction tax. And, the State could tax the transaction at 33% (1%). The states would be ecstatic over such a concept.
And, that is reason Christ trashed the Temple in Jerusalem — because the money changers occupancy of it violated its religious purpose. Both practices continue to this day with tithes in the churches and transaction fees on bank accounts and credit/debit cards, etc. Free money through transaction fees that serve little useful purpose except further enrich the already rich. Never mind the ubiquitous debt financing that underscores the Capitalist economy.
We have reached the logical conclusion of the story of the unavailable God, the development of currency and the Prosperity Gospel it has spawned. However, although the prosperity gospel has expanded, it is still limited to the richest 1% that control the production of goods and services, and exchange of money: How Much Are You Worth? corporate executives, financiers, technology revolutionists and the like are it beneficiaries. You can find them listed in the ‘Forbes 400 Richest’ people, wallowing in their money while the 99% of us are expendable and outsourced by robots or to cheaper labor. This is the trickle up version of the economy that underscores the Prosperity Gospel: Those that have, get. In fact they (Koch’s, Walton’s, Mercer’s, et al) are the scum of the earth turning the earth into uninhabitable scum with their mindless accumulation of artificial money, and the power that goes with it. There are a few (Gates, Buffett) giving large portions of their fortunes to aid the poor and unfortunate, but they are a minority.
To illustrate their methods just look at the example of Donald Trump and the ‘beautiful wall:’ How many people believed that he would keep his promise to ‘build the wall and make Mexico pay for it?’ A lot! Subsequent events have rendered that promise moot. It’s not going to happen. And he compounded that with his recent visit to Liberty University (A Jerry Falwell project) proclaiming “In America we don’t worship government, we worship God.” * (Insert my scream here). And VP Pence has stated that ‘God’ comes first for him, with America 4th or 5th. When will people ever learn, or will they keep falling for the same financial and religious scams? Apparently they not only won’t learn, they revel in their ignorance. P.T. Barnum was right: There’s a sucker born every minute.
What to do? Just telling people they are being promised something (eternal life) if they belong and donate to to this (pick one) church or denomination, despite the fact it’s neither correct nor true, does not dissuade them from their beliefs. The entire purpose and basis of the Monotheistic religions that a God even exists must be altered. It won’t be as long as the hucksters can scam the desperate and gullible with a false doctrine and message that if they believe ‘this,’ or donate ‘that,’ they will be saved and get a place and preference in ‘Heaven.’ And oh, by the way, ‘Vote Republican.’ When will they stop using the rationale that ‘God’ is the fall guy that sustains the beliefs of the lazy, ignorant and gullible as an excuse to dismiss reality and the facts of our temporal existence. Never, as long as they can make a buck.
The Prosperity Gospel is for ME - Not for Thee
The Prosperity Gospel is now infecting all of government: Privatization is the order of the day: Religion, health insurance education, etc. It’s time for the voters to trash the Prosperity Gospel of Capitalism with their private good - public bad mantra. The gospel of money worship that benefits the few (1%) at the expense of the many (99%). When the profit motive for a few becomes the be all and end all of economy, instead of the delivery of goods and services, it will be the end of the Capitalist economy. It’s already happening. For example: Airline charges are up, customer service is down. Brick and mortar stores are shuttering, leaving more people without work. The rich get richer the poor get poorer, and less able to buy goods and services. HELLO! What part of shooting yourself in the wallet don’t the rich understand?
Meantime, back at reality ranch, our temporal needs and requirements — like food, water and shelter — keep intruding on the planetary resources with things like more people, climate change, pollution and depletion of the real commons (resources). We are living in a real world with real problems and real consequences, not a world based on beliefs or some promise of eternal life and hereafter if we donate to the right person or religion. What world do you really live in? The real one is getting worse, rapidly. Or, the one where the words of some scammers preaching prosperity through religion say it’s unnecessary because an unproven ‘better afterlife’ awaits them if they believe and donate to a charlatan posing as a ‘Man of God.’
And the scam goes on.
*His statement is both self-serving and disingenuous because in his own narcissistic mind he thinks HE IS GOD, of one of those ancient empires, and being ever the prosperity gospel scammer we should give him our adulation and unquestioningly bow to his pronouncements and decisions. YUK! :-(
Thank you to all of you who commented on my story Does God Exist? Many of you made good comments and observations, and the subject is of obvious interest. I will review and summarize them, along with comments to this story for further discussion in a future story.