Is Gold the root of all evil?

[Nunu]

Gold is not an evil.
It is depends on how the person handles all the gold they have.

I agree with you 100%.

If one handles all the gold they have carelessly and just waste it, better if they did not own any.

[1713590595]

1713590595

[1713590595]

1713590595

[mouneshwar123]

Gold is no more the root of all evil, stop using Fiat currency
Start using Bitcoins, no one can solely change the value of it

[8up]

It is the love of money which is the root of all evil. If you lust for things that are of this world, you will never grow spiritually. This war we are in must be won with soul power and knowledge. Physical force must be resisted with soul force. Lies must be countered with organized knowledge, so here I will post some details for our discussion.

Not all money, I havent seen bitcoiners going on crusades and enslaving people.

I have seen too many bitcoiners who are too busy trying to make money (bitcoin) that they ignore the larger (spiritual) forces at play in their lives. Is the bitcoin network used primarily for charity and/or remittance? NO, far more bitcoin transactions relate to gambling, criminal/questionable activity, and speculation. The bitcoin not being transacted is being hoarded, again due to speculation. None of that is making the world a better place. Even worse, many in this community choose to pay TAXES on their bitcoin and that tribute inevitably funds wars as a result of that choice. I came to this community after searching for lawful money and alternatives to the banking system, so there is no way that I will volunteer to go back into that evil system. Even if you can transact your money freely, you still need to think freely in order to face evil in this world. If you are into ancient texts, you will hear practically all of them tell you that all this material stuff is evil and only that which is within you has any value; in Bhagavad Gita it is called "duty", in Tao Te Ching "virtue", in the New Testament it is the "Kingdom of God", in Buddhism "inconceivable liberation". This materialistic society only takes "death and taxes" for granted, but hear now the truth: the only certain thing is change, and "the wisest one is the one who knows only that he knows nothing" (from Plato/Socrates, it is a description of a free thinker who values internal refinement over material illusions). And from Tao Te Ching:

Therefore the ancients say, 'Yield and overcome'.
Is that an empty saying?
Be really whole,
And all things will come to you.

 The ancients mastered stone, and they knew about the non-physical. Even science is beginning to move towards a post-materialist paradigm, as explained here:
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/11/11/physicists-say-consciousness-may-be-a-state-of-matter-the-non-physical-is-indeed-real/

The love of money is indeed the root of all evil! If you are into the world of materialism and that is your message, then that is the world you portray... You WILL portray the world you represent and desire--no matter how hard you effort to hide it. You ARE exactly WHAT YOU ARE!

If you wish to change from that which you ARE--then take responsibility and become that which you desire--STOP blaming your lack of change on anything or anyone ELSE! If you are so foolish as to base your existence on another's OPINIONS WITHOUT QUESTION--THEN CHANGE IS NOT THAT WHICH YOU DESIRE--YOU LIE! When you desire something enough to change--you will DO IT. It is absolutely THAT simple.

You can create the soul-ution. Again, it is not the gold that is evil, it is the LOVE of gold; you see, mankind has forgotten the commandment to LOVE GOD and LOVE EACH OTHER; Man values objects over people and over self and as a result he loses knowledge of what is real and what should truly concern him.

Great perspective. Money is a tool - nothing more, nothing less. Imagine the artist, the painter, the pilot - loving the machine/tool more than their creation or the feeling to fly.

[sartorpc]

Gold is just a material, the evil are we humans, don't need to blame gold or money.

[pitham1]

It's by the greediness of people, even though money helps you to have a good living.
Just in the bible says (1 Timothy 6:10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil...but money answers everything.  

Why would you use the Bible to denounce gold as evil?
Between gold and religion, which do you think has caused more destruction in this world? 

[NorrisK]

I agree with you 100%.

If one handles all the gold they have carelessly and just waste it, better if they did not own any.

But the gold can be confiscated anytime by the government and new wars can be funded with it 

In USA after the gold was confiscated, it was used to fund WW2.

Gold is just a material, the evil are we humans, don't need to blame gold or money.

I`m not blaming money like bitcoin, because bitcoin cant be used to fund wars.

But gold can be, so i`m blaming gold. Yes humans are evil too, but gold is a perfect tool to do evil.

Why can't bitcoin be used to fund wars? Maybe the governments already have a nice stack of coins sitting around just for that.

As long as there are companies that accept bitcoin for guns/tanks/planes/rockets/ whatever, bitcoin can be used for war.

Market cap might be too small though.

[Light]

Because it cant be confiscated like in 1933, plus it cant be printed out of thin air, so even if the government embraces bitcoin as a currency, it can only spend as much as it collects in taxes.

Thus a limited supply blocks tyrrany. Gold isnt limited, and with new mining technology or some futuristic synthetization method it can be a fiat currency too.

But here's the problem - we're assuming a government of a meaningful nation will ever adopt Bitcoin as its official currency. That'll never happen because of the reasons you state - government requires some degree of control over financial markets (through regulatory reserve banks) so they can modulate and respond to economic changes. Bitcoin doesn't allow for that to happen at all - it's completely a pure market - which means government will never see it as viable for official adoption.

[STT]

Why can't bitcoin be used to fund wars?

Because it cant be confiscated like in 1933, plus it cant be printed out of thin air, so even if the government embraces bitcoin as a currency, it can only spend as much as it collects in taxes.

Thus a limited supply blocks tyrrany.

 Gold isnt limited, and with new mining technology or some futuristic synthetization method it can be a fiat currency too.

As long as there are companies that accept bitcoin for guns/tanks/planes/rockets/ whatever, bitcoin can be used for war.

Thats another thing. But only governments buy military hardware by bundles. If they dont have enough money for it, they cant buy.

Average people dont have rockets in their houses.

I pretty much agree with and its such a important point, so easily missed but its true that limited currency will tend to limit war.   We're not talking absolutes here, obviously people can fight but without a leash a government can become a dangerous thing to its own people, to other people to everyone who isn't within that power its off the leash and dangerous.

We recognise that democracy limits power of those at the top, they are guided by a need to satisfy their population.  On the other hand people recognise also that democracy is not without faults, mistakes still occur but in the main its a force for good.

So what about the money side of things and I agree that a non fiat limit here like bitcoin has is going to reduce war.   The reason is that the population immediately feels pain from government overspending on sources of war, weapons and massive military build-up.  Either democracy breaks down and a military dictatorship occurs or more likely the average person stops this excessive military spending and so war is less likely in most cases and certainly pointless aggression is restricted as people know its costs.  

When debt and fiat currency allows for massive expansion without pain of this spending being felt, its making war more possible and almost always this war will be pointless, unneeded aggression that benefits neither side.   Most obviously world war 1 did not need to happen and nobody gained from millions of deaths, it is contrary to capitalism I will argue to engage in war and death, productivity is wasted on every side

I do disagree with you on gold being fiat.  Work must be done to enable its mining, this requires alot of effort and attention diverted from elsewhere.  There is a feedback effect to it as a source of capital.   yes technology has enabled greater mining but still its growth is restricted far more then we've seen with the Federal reserve fiat system which is basically a currency of promises and political bargaining between nations mostly to the detriment of powerless people

[Efemen]

Gold is just a tool, a kind of money if you use it that way. You can use gold for good causes or bad causes. It depends on who use it.

[neochiny]

It's by the greediness of people, even though money helps you to have a good living.
Just in the bible says (1 Timothy 6:10) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil...but money answers everything.  

Why would you use the Bible to denounce gold as evil?
Between gold and religion, which do you think has caused more destruction in this world? 

good point! in old days many priests use their religion to abuse people.
so using bible to denounce gold is just ironic dont you think.

[ObscureBean]

Gold is a naturally occurring metal, it can no more be evil (or root of evil) than the air you breathe. Power is perhaps the one you want to blame but then the existence power is sustained only by the human mind .
By deciding that gold is more precious than other metals you imbue it with power. The word 'more' is of strength and the word 'less' of weakness. Pointing at anything other than oneself is by far the most common trick people use to avoid judging themselves.

[HighPixelr]

You say Bitcoin is morally superior to gold, but what about the mining farms that are using a lot of gigawatts of electricity and subsequently damaging the planet,
what do you have to say to that?

[bitcoinmar]

Gold is never been evil because its all time a great sign of love its just we are who are going to create all troubles for this beautiful word we need to talk and solve these things Gold is really Gold

[RealBitcoin]

You say Bitcoin is morally superior to gold, but what about the mining farms that are using a lot of gigawatts of electricity and subsequently damaging the planet,
what do you have to say to that?

What about the cyanide that is used to mine gold. Entire rivers have been devastated, and the ecological harm from gold mining is astronomical.

How do you compare that to mining bitcoin which is more efficient as the day goes by, and most people have even trying to build solar powered bitcoin mining, which is totally clean.

[Yakamoto]

Gold is never been evil because its all time a great sign of love its just we are who are going to create all troubles for this beautiful word we need to talk and solve these things Gold is really Gold

I wouldn't say gold is a great sign of love. It is merely a valued piece of metal which is backed by real life uses, and given value due to the scarcity and requirements of extracting it. I have a hard time following the rest of your statement, so that's my two cents.

You say Bitcoin is morally superior to gold, but what about the mining farms that are using a lot of gigawatts of electricity and subsequently damaging the planet,
what do you have to say to that?

Gold, in and of itself, is not evil. The methods of obtaining wealth are the real evils.

As said above, the pursuit of gathering gold have lead to the collapse of entire ecosystems, due to the toxic byproducts being dumped in the most convenient place possible. Cyanide causes entire rivers to be toxic and lethal for anything that drinks from it. Sometimes large areas are decimated as a means of getting gold (however the same areas may be reclaimed after the mining operation is completed).

Bitcoin farms, on the other hand, use far less metal materials than mining operations do. Having a group of circuits, fans and wires as opposed to giant metal shells with circuits, fans, wires, engines, and fuel is far less consuming. Plus the only "damage" caused by mining is the use of electricity; which can be procured by renewable means, such as solar or wind energy.

There is so much less ecological damage done by Bitcoin it doesn't even seem like this should be an argument.

[spirit of btc]

Gold is no more the root of all evil, stop using Fiat currency
Start using Bitcoins, no one can solely change the value of it

if all of us starts using bitcoin gold will be nothing in no time.but people are still crazy for gold investment

[Monnt]

Gold really isn't any evil in itself. Besides being pretty shipping, it's a commodity, and dirt could be of more value is we so choose. This evil you talk of comes from our greed, channelled through a simple metal; gold. See? We fight over a simple commodity. Why not dirt- oh wait, we already do

[STT]

if the miners using alternative energy, who knows? , and i have seen some mining farms that use alternative energy or nature friendly energy, dont generalizing all of miner damaging the planet

Some coins require nothing but an internet connection and a normal pc can transact while idling, basically making useful work from otherwise wasted computer time

[newcoins1978]

what do you mean by this , not only gold but currency are also root of evil. because both are needed in difficult time, gold is the asset which can be liquidate at the worst time of life,

He means the greed. Gold makes people greedy and let them do evil things.

So do you think it's evil?

[Decoded]

Gold is not evil in itself. It is the hand of our evil. Or greed makes is want more, and we will go to the ends of the earth to get more. Gold is simply a commodity.