Money is the World's Largest Religion

Human beings study several sciences: physics, mathematics, biology, ethics, and of course economics. When we look at an object in physics, one of the more 'real' sciences you could say, depending on the perspective in question, we can determine and assign it several properties: things like mass, height, length, inertia, density. However, in recent years, we've added a property to that list: cost. Cost is commonly the first aspect we look at, especially nowadays in our state of economy. But what is it? To answer that we must ask what is currency.

A friend of mine named Shawn has more money than most people I know, so when he told me what money was, it surprised me coming from someone who had so much of it. He told me, money is a promise. It's a promise that because you gave me some item or service, someone else in a similar society will give you an item or service of equal value. But then what is value? It might be measurable, but how so? We can measure weight, and dimensions, and the like, without question. But value is something different. It's a psychological phenomenon, a process in the brain in which the human undergoes some equation to calculate how much currency the asset in question is worth. It's not a real thing, it's an imaginary game. However, the ritual of applying value to assets has become so widespread, along with the trade of, accumulation, or at least obsession over currency, it reaches every corner of the planet. It's a mental process which we use to justify actions such as sacrifice and war and the joining of labor systems which consume our health and life, all for the dollar. Money is truly a religion is every aspect.


When I say money is a religion, let's look at it from a few different perspectives. It's not real, the value behind currency is something you must be convinced of or convince yourself to believe. It's not necessary for survival without external social factors: people will kill non-believers in some countries whereas people will starve to death in other countries if they do not have access to the 'proper' means of food such as currency or farmland. (Imagine an individual who tried to go out and start farming enough land to feed himself without some other person's consent, such as the landowner or government officials.) However, as a human being, currency is not food nor water, nor is it shelter nor air. Yet we see it as a means of achieving these things, much as followers of a religion see their belief as a means of avoiding some punishment or achieving some great reward, hell and heaven. Plus of course it's integration in society, and it's sheer vastness of the population it effects. Money and religion are without question two of the most influential factors in human interaction. People worship money, in some extreme cases, or even without noticing. What rituals do you undergo on a daily basis to acquire more currency? Would you give up your job for a hypothetical one that paid you an equal value of shelter, food, water, and entertainment of your choice, one that gives you all the same things you would have anyway, but you don't have to buy it and it's just given to you at the end of the month? Most people wouldn't, because of the certain sense of freedom or revelation that goes along with having money, but also, it just wouldn't be 'normal'. Most individuals would have an inertia to such changes simply because it's too vastly different, it's a conversion to a whole new way of life. It's a new religion, or the equivalent thereof.

Despite how old money is people were around long before it's existence, and upon it's introduction many things changed, many for the better. This discussion is not to debase the effectiveness of money, nor the value of religion, I have no anti-religious angst or intention of any kind; but rather I am attempting to draw the connection between the two and give people a new way to look at money, and hopefully withdraw themselves from it enough to not obsess over it and improve the quality of the readers' lives. Money created a third dimension of trade, you were no longer just bartering with one person, but you could exchange with him and immediately take your acquired finances and exchange it for something else more desirable. It created many effects, and economies flourished.

Unfortunately, it has many negative effects. It created the concept that things have an external value, something different than it's true worth, but an artificial value based of social human acceptance: price. What's worse is that this price system began to be applied not only to items but also to people. Your salary (thusly your social class) became your worth, and this culture carries over still until today. To many individuals in the business world, you are a number, an expense that is easily replaced. It's a sad, sad reality. Everyone says they'd do different, but almost everyone at some point in his or her life will save money at the expense of someone else, i.e. everyone who has ever shopped at a store like Wal-Mart, who forces new employees to watch videos denouncing workers' unions as ultimately negative entities and encouraging them to avoid them, in addition to a plethora of other unethical practices.

Additionally, it is still a true statement that humans existed and thrived long before the concept of monetary value and the invention of currency. I'm not saying we should abolish the currency system, although I'd be intrigued at the idea, but rather that money should have a different culture, and far less influence, than it does today.

I hope this short article offered something to be gained. As always comments of all kinds are welcome, and many thanks for reading.