Why Are Religious People So Poor?
The richer people are, the less religious they are
As a kid, I was taught in church that you can ask God for anything, and he will give it to you. The next thing I wanted to know was if that included money. Of course, it did. So, the earliest chance I got, I asked God for a billion dollars.
I figured that if he could give me that, I wouldn’t bother him anymore with requests. In fact, I would help him take care of other people’s requests. That’s because the majority of people’s requests can be sorted with money.
Of course, I didn’t tell anybody what I asked God. I know what they will think of me. I was pretty sure they hadn’t gone that far. No one around me as a kid was billion-dollar rich. So, I know I couldn’t listen to them when it came to my request.
And that was what bothered me initially — what in the world were people asking God for? They were all asking just enough for themselves and their families. Isn’t that selfish? Isn’t selfishness a sin?
As I grew older, I noticed a trend. The richer the people I met, the less religious they were. The very religious ones are poor. The extremely religious ones are very poor. You could almost pass this as a theorem.
So, why are religious people poor?
Religion as a Tool of Control
I am a Christian. I love God. But I can barely sit through a Sunday service in most churches. Sometimes, I get so disgusted that I have to distract myself.
Think about this…
We have had an explosion of wealth like no other in the last 300 years. Especially the last 50 years have created so much wealth in the world. But what made such an explosion of wealth possible?
What changed? It is still the same old earth. Gravity didn’t change. The sun was still the sun. Nothing fell from the sky. There was no additional mineral material added to the earth. Think about this.
Everything needed to create a fully functioning airplane was on this earth in 200 BC. Everything required to make an iPhone was on this earth in 145 AD. What changed in the last couple of years? Well, the answer is people.
But let’s go deeper: why was humanity stuck for so long? Why didn’t people think of making these things then? Imagine if the Wright brothers' test flight had been in 125 AD. Imagine the technological reality we would be living in today. Why did we make progress so slow?
The dawn of the scientific revolution in the world interestingly coincides with the toning down of religion. As people started looking away from religion into science, humanity began to make technological progress.
Now, this is not to say God was the enemy. Many of the people who came up with scientific breakthroughs were Christians. But they were people willing to look beyond the stereotype. They were people who discovered that religion was man-made.
God didn’t invent a religion, man did. And man did so that he could control his fellow men
Think about that for a second.
Monarchs and Mortals
Why was the Bible locked up and inaccessible to everyday people for ages? And in those times, only the priest could read it. And then, come to tell the people what is in it. Sounds exactly the opposite idea of what I have read in the New Testament.
The guys who translated the Bible for everyday people to be able to read themselves were severely persecuted. Some of them include William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale. Go read their story.
And I am using Christianity as an example here because it seems to be the most common (at least, in the Western world). All the other religions have a similar story. And the breakthroughs Christianity has had, many of those other religions have not had it. They remain a prime tool of control.
Who wields the control? Monarchs. They made themselves a god to the people. They deliberately pick areas that make people subservient to their rules and wishes. Thank God they are mortals.
Many people think we are way past all of that. They believe religious manipulation no longer exists, especially in Christianity. They don’t know that people still perpetuate the exact idea of those monarchs in the dark ages. “Fall in line or risk being ostracized.”
I find that many preachers don’t even understand the message of the gospel (in the Christian context now). They studied the Bible for the purpose of preaching it to others. Kind of sounds like a pyramid scheme to me.
It is difficult for me to stay listening to someone who is merely parroting someone else’s view. And I have studied this subject a lot so I can tell to a large extent. They are not saying what they say because they figured out something for the good of all mankind. They are saying what they say because it is their job.
It seems to me that anyone who deeply studies the scriptures and understands the message will seek to start something more like a school, not a “church.” In my opinion, what we know as “church” today is the most ineffective way possible to communicate the gospel. (Just my own thinking though).
That’s why I like people who take creative approaches to their Christian mission, such as George Muller (about two centuries ago) who ran an orphanage, and Andrew Wommack (in present-day) who runs a Bible College (not a theological school).
Okay, let’s get back to money talks.
Why Religious People Are Poor
It is so common sense. The global reserve currency today is the US dollar. That is what you would call money. It is printed by the USA under the authority of the Federal Reserve Bank of America.
Let’s say you want the US dollar. You know that it is earth money. You know the authority behind that money is earth-based. And you also know that God is in heaven. So, it seems to me that if God sends you dollars directly from heaven, that would be counterfeit money.
You may say, “Oh, God can speak to the authority in charge of dollars to send me some”. If God answers everyone’s prayer like that, wouldn’t the purchasing power of money be gone? Wouldn’t there be hyperinflation?
Oh! That is why people don’t ask for a billion dollars. They think it’s going to be hard for God to make some dude in charge of a large chunk to send a billion. So, they think, “If I ask for a thousand bucks, I guess it’s going to be easier for God to do”.
So, they ask for a thousand. And never get it (in time). Then, they either blame God or keep dragging themselves through false hope. Those who blame God turn into some form of atheism. All the atheists I know predicate their proof of the inexistence of God on something they think he ought to do that he didn’t do. That’s quite shallow, don’t you think?
The other group just blames themselves instead. They think, “If God didn’t give me the money, then I must not be worthy. Maybe I did something bad. Maybe I have offended him.” And then, they live in this perpetual state of unworthiness. And they pass that on to others. These are the religious people.
It is easy to see why religious people are poor now. Isn’t it?
Update on My Billion Dollar Request
My billion-dollar request was made quite a while ago. And I have since raised the target. I won’t tell you how much it is right now.
This is because I now understand the game. And I thought, if this is what it will take to get to a billion, I might as well set a much bigger target. Why? And this is the big idea…
The amount doesn’t matter!
God doesn’t have US dollars. God is not in the business of counterfeiting the Federal Reserve. Neither is God an architect of hyperinflation. God gives ideas, and the implementation of it is up to you.
Ever since my billion-dollar request, I have had an insatiable desire to study and understand money. I studied billionaires and millionaires. I studied wealthy countries and why they are wealthy. I studied wealthy corporations and families.
If you want to be rich, the journey is the same regardless of how much you are aiming for. And the very worst way of getting started in life is to go work for money. Yes, you should work. But if you ever want to be rich, it must never be just for the money.
Conclusion
Why are religious people poor? They are poor because they think God will speak to someone to give them money. But instead, God gives ideas. And implementation is up to each person.
Implementation can be hard. Many think theirs should be easy because they are asking for something small. Nope! The amount doesn’t matter. That’s why it pays to ask BIG. Implementation can be very hard such that if you don’t want it bad enough, you will abandon the whole thing and go do the easy thing.
What is the easy thing? It is to go work for money — to go work for a paycheck. No one makes multiple millions or billions by merely working for money. I explained more about this in the book — If You Want to Be Rich, Don’t Work for Money.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08BDT947T
(It’s a link to my book)
