Isn't Capitalism opposed to freedom of religion?

J

jusmeig

Registered Senior Member
Hi,

I found this question on www.capitalism.org. The answer was no...you can read the whole thing if you wish......But just answer me this then:

What religion teaches that the accumulation of wealth (at the expense of others) and the creation of huge social divides is a good thing?

If you live and are happy living in a capitalistic society, are basic Christian/Islamic beliefs not in serious conflict with a capitalistic doctrine?

Capitalism may allow you to practice any religion you wish....but the problems capitalism creates, which we are all well aware of, are in direct contradiction to the teaching of most religions.

You views please........
 
Well ....

but the problems capitalism creates, which we are all well aware of, are in direct contradiction to the teaching of most religions.
Click to expand...
Well, I'm of the opinion that the folks over at that website pretend those problems don't exist.

Some of their arguments are hilarious. Of wages in a capitalistic society, their example was Michael Jordan.

Remember that Capitalism is not actually a political system. It is an economic system. The Capitalism website is a strange beast, indeed.

:m:,
Tiassa :cool:
 
I think the people who run that website are indeed out of their minds.....Looking at the western world with blinkers on can be quite rewarding........
 
Another thought.........By being a member of a religion with set teachings, or just upholding certain moral codes (like myself)...are we not all hypocrites of the wrost description...

Most of our products are produced off the back of slave labour, with workers working in the most appauling conditions to feed their families......The third world basically provides an inexpensive labour pool for our capitalistic society.....

I would gladly worship a golden statue if it would eliminate this problem!
 
yea, yea, yea...

Not that this really belongs in the religion forum but I'll bite anyway.

Actually, I find that capitalism gets a rather bad rap, as if economic imbalances don't exist in other systems. Poppycock. Show me an economic system that has been deployed on a large scale that does not have difficulty with the equality of resource distribution and does not create a disparity of wealth somewhere in its system. I'll jump over immediately.

Until then, limited capitalism seems to provide the most stuff to the most people. This does not mean that I advocate abuse of the system or suggest ignoring various problems it creates. The primary focus right now should be on how to efficiently move resources from areas of surplus to areas of need and how to increase the availability of resources in general.

But somehow of a bunch of westerners typing at their computers from the air-conditioned apartments about the evils of capitalism strikes me as hypocritical. When you're living in a dirt floored shack, walking to work barefoot, and eating red-beans and rice for every meal you can get back to me about how the capitalism is so terrible and abusive. Your gain is another's loss after all, right?

~Raithere
 
cripes...

Okay, I just looked at the site and I guess a small apology is due. The site is insane. Just realize that what is posted there is Ayn Rand's somewhat psychotic version of objectivism... not economic capitalism. Which did you really want to discuss?

~Raithere
 
Thank you, Raithere

I'm glad I didn't catch this topic in between the posts; I might have said something to disrupt the moment. Analogously, those two posts combined are the nearest equivalent of actually getting to see the look on your face. And that has nothing to do with you directly; in other words, please don't think I'm taking some satisfaction at an imagined moment of embarrassment. It's just that I love actually getting to see that moment in people. I'm inclined to advise you to not worry about actually apologizing; nobody I know has ever been prepared for what they found at that website. It's kind of like the first time someone shows you bestial internet porn ... sure, I said, "Oh, you've got to be kidding me," but I certainly wasn't prepared for what came next.

Sometimes I think they're actually former Socialist provocateurs who smoked a little too much dope while reading the background material for their subversive project. They actually held a march in Seattle once, if I recall. Perhaps it was for the website launch.

But you do make a valid point:
Your gain is another's loss after all, right?
Click to expand...
I think there's a great discussion. You've pretty much encapsulated Capitalism. Christianity, for sure, disagrees with this (cf Matthew 25), and various religious ideas speak against the Capitalist position; Buddhism, Sufism, and other philosophical and even esoteric religions seek in part to avoid dependence on material things.

I think this is part of why some people view Capitalism as problematic. One one level, it is an attempt at a "natural" economy; to the other, it's somewhat ruthless. It does seem somewhat contradictory to form a social cooperative just to compete for an abstract representation of resources. Competition is for things alien to one another; cooperation is for things common. Where one draws the line of common and alien, what boundaries one chooses to set--this is the flip-side of the cooperative nature of religions, the reservation of the cooperative spirit for subjective classification of common nature.

:m:,
Tiassa :cool:
 
Some of the richest entities are churches. They are great in accumilating wealth. Their main enteprise is selling after life insurance to their followers. They never have to pay off and their clients never complain.

I'd say relegions love capitalism.
 
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