Sex -vs- Money -vs- Religion

[IrishCanadian25]

It's a simple question - what is the most powerful of the three? Sex? Money? Or religion?

All three are used in forms of exercising power. Power with sex is often rape. Power with money if often corruption. Power with religion is often deception. Sex helped cause the Trojan War. Money helped cause numerous trans-continental conflicts. Religion can be linked to countless major wars in history, including the current one between the US and allies vs the Taliban.

Which of the three - sex, money, or religion - is the most pervasive and why?

 

[Sparky]

I think it depends on your gender.

If your a girl, Sex is the most pervasive. You can get anything with sex. Open those legs up if your good looking enough and you could have the whole world at your feet. money runs out after a while and if your good enough at sex you can make money anyway. Sex is something frowned upon in most religions proving again why it's the most powerful. Out off all the things frowned upon How many times do us humans do it. (sex before marriage) Alot less people do crazy things for money.

It's sort of the same with guys. Look at Bikers, You steal money off them Fuck their women or Mock their religion. Only two of them things will get them fired up. And 9/10 Bikies would be angrier if you cut off their supply of pootang then what they would be if you conned them out of money.

So I'm going to have to stick with A, Irish lock it in.

Edit: No poll drats.
Edit: Edit: I mean in no way at all to be offensive to women.

 

[LigerBomb]

Easy. Secs. Er, Sex. Although whether it be money, sex, or religion, it's all just the same entity with different faces. A trinity if you will.

Personally I choose sex, which for all intents and purposes is the physical manifestation of our biological urge to perpetuate the species in general and specifically our unique and individual seed, as it is by and large hardwired into our genetic code. It's the driving force behind our entire history and culture. But even more so its is the most physical and direct means by which we instinctively try to achieve a certain although imperfect version of life after death.

Money and Religion are additions and derivatives of the life after death concept, and sometimes are rerouted into the main objective of sex. Money as it is used today is the means by which we establish an ability to continue to exist (stave of the impending death) via the purchase of food, shelter etc. Basically money is a means to ensure and exhibit security and in abundance, status. This security functions to allow us to continue the hunt for mates, and to show said mates that we should be selected for the "task" because we can provide both in the here and now and in the future. Along the same lines those who use money to influence and retain power are merely trying to leverage their security and establish a legacy to pass down to their seeds, or if no offspring exists, to once again not be forgotten after they die, another imperfect version of life after death.

It's this quest to cheat death that spirals into the topic of religion which for lack of a better analogy is a form of (after)life-insurance. It's a hope for something once we've all "shoved off this mortal coil", it's a just in case. So do good things, curry favor and score after-life points (paying the premium) cash in the policy upon your death bed. If you're right well then you win, if you were wrong and there is nothing after well didn't hurt to try...
But back to sex, especially for men, it is the preeminent motivator for most of life's decisions. For everyone? Probably not, there are bound to be the ends of the bell curve that prove the exception to the rule, outliers if you will. As an aside the "biological clock" is a similar idea but even more ever present as women only get a finite number of eggs. Anyway, otherwise if sex was readily available and free and easy to acquire --in every sense of the word-- I would suspect that motivation and drive to do anything else would diminish greatly. Not entirely, but in large part, though I also believe after we had our fill of bacchanalian delights and the accompanying orgies, it would probably free us to eventually re-focus on other pursuits. Basically a "hierarchy of needs" situation. From research I've read I think that has to do with hormones (testosterone, estrogen, IGF-1, cortisol etc.) and to a lesser extent deep seeded psychological issues, but I digress.

For me I chose sex, but an argument along the same lines can be made for other choices, however I would submit that regardless of choice it returns to some form of a survival, preservation, and enshrining instinct.

 

[BladeRunner]

It's this quest to cheat death that spirals into the topic of religion which for lack of a better analogy is a form of (after)life-insurance. It's a hope for something once we've all "shoved off this mortal coil", it's a just in case. So do good things, curry favor and score after-life points (paying the premium) cash in the policy upon your death bed. If you're right well then you win, if you were wrong and there is nothing after well didn't hurt to try...

Some religions don't believe in an afterlife. And many people don't believe that life's a game in which you get a prize at the end, yet are still religious. Religion is actually a very broad idea that encompasses various points of view on existence. Christianity, Buddhism, Marxism, Freudianism, there's a thousand different perspectives on reality.

I think that man exists on multiple levels. He's got a mental level, he's got a physical level. He's got a very reptilian part of him which is "fight or flight". He's got a mammalian part of him which is the next step up, where emotions come into play. And then he's got the rational part of him, which is what makes him special and can make him become something more than an animal.

Sex is very important as it is a very old deep part of man, but I think that religion is the most important. Religion is the means by which man makes sense of his world. It's his worldview. He exists within his worldview. It makes up everything he believes about the world. To me religion and philosophy are the same. Some people may not have a "religion" but every one has a philosophy on what the good life is.

Man's ideas about the world shape what it is to him. They also shape what he thinks about himself and others. Sex is apart of man, but it's also something he can control. Many parts of himself he can control.

The being able to have mastery over himself, having willpower to become what he wants, these are what make man a higher being.

Man has a choice. To crawl around on all fours and be completely controlled by his random bodily impulses, or to have mastery over himself and become something more than mere animal. He can ignore reality and it's facts and be a mindless ape, or he can pay attention, use his reason, wisdom, and compassion, and make life good for himself and others.

 

[LigerBomb]

Some religions don't believe in an afterlife. And many people don't believe that life's a game in which you get a prize at the end, yet are still religious. Religion is actually a very broad idea that encompasses various points of view on existence. Christianity, Buddhism, Marxism, Freudianism, there's a thousand different perspectives on reality.

I think that man exists on multiple levels. He's got a mental level, he's got a physical level. He's got a very reptilian part of him which is "fight or flight". He's got a mammalian part of him which is the next step up, where emotions come into play. And then he's got the rational part of him, which is what makes him special and can make him become something more than an animal.

Sex is very important as it is a very old deep part of man, but I think that religion is the most important. Religion is the means by which man makes sense of his world. It's his worldview. He exists within his worldview. It makes up everything he believes about the world. To me religion and philosophy are the same. Some people may not have a "religion" but every one has a philosophy on what the good life is.

Man's ideas about the world shape what it is to him. They also shape what he thinks about himself and others. Sex is apart of man, but it's also something he can control. Many parts of himself he can control.

The being able to have mastery over himself, having willpower to become what he wants, these are what make man a higher being.

Man has a choice. To crawl around on all fours and be completely controlled by his random bodily impulses, or to have mastery over himself and become something more than mere animal. He can ignore reality and it's facts and be a mindless ape, or he can pay attention, use his reason, wisdom, and compassion, and make life good for himself and others.

Nice to say and I see your point but put into practice religion, as used here for the formal and organized kind, is falling by the wayside as we slip more and more away from fear of imminent death and understand our physical world via science and the like. Without belief, or fear, of what comes next many abandon formal religion and become an agnostic or atheist outright. Society and abundance of convenience allow and blind us to believe we are evolved and noble when in reality we are an evolutionary drop in the bucket. When pushed we're mostly, not entirely, still rather base and selfish... Some religions don't believe in heaven? Really? Well never said they all do, but most --of the big religions that encompass the largest numbers of humanity-- do belief in something after this life whether it be Christian Heaven, Pastafarian Heaven or even another shot via reincarnation, or drifting into nirvana etc., etc., etc. Point is survival is primal. It's basic, and it's fundamental. Like reading. Sex is the most tangible physical expression of carrying on your line without it religion, and the concept of money wouldn't exist as their would be no one around to envision such concepts. For sheer power sex tends to win

 

[Tastycles]

Money is purely a means to an end. It gives you power, but having a piece of paper with the queen's head on it gives you nothing but opportunity. Both sex and religion have their own inherent qualities, so that you can take them at face value.

So we're left with sex and religion. Looking at the history of the world, the real history now, not mythology, and we will see religion as being the biggest reason for those wars. However, on a personal level, particularly amongst men, sex is the biggest vice. Religion takes a lifetime of idoctrination to get you to do anything, sex can take an hour.

That being said about religion, it all comes down to sex in the end. Humanity is an exercise in creating the next generation, and religion is purely a social division. The wars fought over religion are done so with the aim to convert everyone to one religion, but the only way you get any more people to convert is through sex. Everything that every living creature does is ultimately designed to have sex and make offspring, and that is the meaning of life. To make more. How do you do it? Sex.

 

[BladeRunner]

Without belief, or fear, of what comes next many abandon formal religion and become an agnostic or atheist outright.

Atheism and Agnosticism are philosophical systems. Which was my point. You cannot get out of a belief system. When you stop believing in one, you fall into another.

Even if you believe in something no one else does, nevertheless it's a worldview.

You cannot get out of your worldview. My point was, was that everyone has a worldview, and their point of view on life, and this vastly affects how they live their life. And because this affects how they live their life so much, it becomes the most important part of it.

we're left with sex and religion. Looking at the history of the world, the real history now, not mythology, and we will see religion as being the biggest reason for those wars. However, on a personal level, particularly amongst men, sex is the biggest vice. Religion takes a lifetime of idoctrination to get you to do anything, sex can take an hour.

That being said about religion, it all comes down to sex in the end. Humanity is an exercise in creating the next generation, and religion is purely a social division. The wars fought over religion are done so with the aim to convert everyone to one religion, but the only way you get any more people to convert is through sex. Everything that every living creature does is ultimately designed to have sex and make offspring, and that is the meaning of life. To make more. How do you do it? Sex.

Religion is not always purely social division. Christianity got people to help the slaves in America get freedom. Values help people treat each other nicely. Religion can generally helps people get along along with each other most of the time, and give people reasons to live and values. Many people would have killed themselves and not procreated without learning about how to value life.

You seem to think sex is the ultimate value. And so by saying so, you've just made it so. Therefore that has become your belief system or philosophical system. As I said, you stop believing in one, you fall into another.

There's no such thing as a "post-religious" people. Everyone has a world view, there's no "ultimate worldview" which destroys all other worldviews, or you're back to square one where you have to persecute those who don't believe as you do.

Only certain religions have gone to war to convert people. Some religions don't believe in forcibly converting people. Some religions don't think there's anything to convert you to.

It's kind of like saying that since some people have killed someone after reading a book, then ALL books must be bad, and that's just nonsense.

But in summation, to me, ideas, or philosophical systems, are the most important thing to mankind. You couldn't even read what I'm saying right now without them.

I'm not saying that sex is unimportant either. What I'm saying is, is that if we have no ideas about sex, sex wouldn't mean anything to us. Philosophical systems contain all of our ideas about things.

 

[Cena's Little Helper]

Besides a loving parent/caretaker, nothing is more important in this world than money. Furthermore, nothing has a more powerful influence on your direction in life than money. Of course, there are some truly driven people out there who can make it without the help of a lot of coin in their pocket, but you're delusional if you don't think that the majority of the most successful people in the world didn't get to where they got because they came from an at least somewhat wealthy background.

The only time money can't buy you happiness is if your happiness depends on another person's emotions. If you have money and derive your happiness from your own accomplishments and how you can help out those less fortunate than you, then the sky's the limit in terms of how happy you can be.

 

[LigerBomb]

Atheism and Agnosticism are philosophical systems. Which was my point. You cannot get out of a belief system. When you stop believing in one, you fall into another.

Even if you believe in something no one else does, nevertheless it's a worldview.

You cannot get out of your worldview. My point was, was that everyone has a worldview, and their point of view on life, and this vastly affects how they live their life. And because this affects how they live their life so much, it becomes the most important part of it.

And to exist to have your thoughts you must be physically created and that is by the design of a link up the generational chain higher than you. Since thought alone cannot produce life, the desire to procreate and have sex to do so would trump religion/belief system/world view/thought etc. in terms of power.

Religion is not always purely social division. Christianity got people to help the slaves in America get freedom. Values help people treat each other nicely. Religion can generally helps people get along along with each other most of the time, and give people reasons to live and values. Many people would have killed themselves and not procreated without learning about how to value life.

You seem to think sex is the ultimate value. And so by saying so, you've just made it so. Therefore that has become your belief system or philosophical system. As I said, you stop believing in one, you fall into another.

There's no such thing as a "post-religious" people. Everyone has a world view, there's no "ultimate worldview" which destroys all other worldviews, or you're back to square one where you have to persecute those who don't believe as you do.

Only certain religions have gone to war to convert people. Some religions don't believe in forcibly converting people. Some religions don't think there's anything to convert you to.

It's kind of like saying that since some people have killed someone after reading a book, then ALL books must be bad, and that's just nonsense.

But in summation, to me, ideas, or philosophical systems, are the most important thing to mankind. You couldn't even read what I'm saying right now without them.

No one is speaking in absolutes, rather the major religions, that are practices by the majority of humanity, do follow certain conventions allowing for some generalizations that are quite accurate as can be proven by history. The minutia of exceptions are largely irrelevant and moot when discussing the most powerful driving force of all human history.

I'm not saying that sex is unimportant either. What I'm saying is, is that if we have no ideas about sex, sex wouldn't mean anything to us. Philosophical systems contain all of our ideas about things.

And once again to exist, to carry on, to reproduce, is an even more powerful driving force. Cells divided yet they do not think, bacteria multiply yet remain blissfully unaware, animals mate yet don't struggle with philosophical query, humanity for all its bluster and trumped up talk is hardly any better, basic as it is sex is encoded into our very DNA, before thought, reason, morality, spirituality and the like, there was and forever will be perpetuation of species and self. Surely for us to be here now, and evolve to the point we're currently at mentally, the primates and missing-links devoid of and higher mental function still "knew" deep down in their bones to forever create the next iteration of self.
Rather than "I think, I am"
It's: "He fucked therefore I think, I am..."
And "I fuck therefore he shall think and will be..."
all due respect to Descartes

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

I'm going to have to go with money.

You can use money to buy both sex and the religious (see: Scientology). If you are interested in sex, then you'll find yourself in a win-win situation when you get the money, whether it be illegal prostitution, or leeches who are willing to be with you because of your money, even though you're not directly paying for sex.

It's a pretty cynical view of society, but monetary needs have always been the most powerful on the social ladder. Sex just kind of comes with it.

As for religion, I just see that as a giant financial scam anyway.

 

[Ambiguous Turd]

Very good thread.

Money is without a doubt, the most powerful. As Mozzarella stated, money can buy sex, and it can also influence religion. Many people like to think of Sex as influencing people with money, but you have to have the money to buy the sex you more than likely most desire, in many cases. Whether it be by sleeping with someone attractive who is attracted to your wealth, or whether you are having a normal relationship with a girl, who likes to be treated to some of the finer things in life.

Money drives that relationship, whether one is conscious to it or not. And I dare say without the money, the lady would be out the door and onto someone else.

As far as Religion goes, money is what keeps religion in business. If the money wasn't there, then religion would be out of existence. Although religion compels people to donate their money, granted, which keeps the system in existence.

But one can not deny that even though Religion is an awesome force in the world, money is still the thing that drives the global economy. And money is the most influential thing in our entire lives that keeps people going. That is what they work for ... to earn a living.

Without a doubt, money is the most powerful influence.

 

[Razor]

Religion. Easy. Hands down. 100%. No way in Hell (see what I did there?) it's anything else.

Sex? Religion easily has a market on their followers refusing or limiting sexual acts.

Money? Religion makes people give the church money. And if not the church specifically, then the followers often donate money to causes outside of or linked to the church.

Religion controls people in every facet of their lives. You ever heard of the people who are demonized for giving up their lives to their job? Yeah, we never speak that way for religion, do we? Just because it's socially accepted? Bah. Religions not only ask more of someone, they ask of it of millions more people.

Religion has been able to form millions of sexually abstinent and purposefully poor monks/priests/holy men. It has caused wars from the days of Charlemagne the Great to today's massive terrorism dilemma. It has caused trillions of people throughout the ages to conform their very way of life to avoid wrath from an angry God.

All of this to avoid Hell.

Has sex ever been the leading cause of an entire empire? Religion has led the Holy Roman Empire, Roman Empire after Constantine, entirety of Europe through the Dark Ages, Ottoman Empire, Persia, Egypt, Greek Isles, and Japan (through the worship of their Emperor). And that's just what I can list off the top of my head.

Money has always been a secondary condition, after religion. It will always be a secondary condition to the affairs of a person's fate after death. We aren't afraid of being poor. We're afraid of what happens when we have no more choice.