Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari writes, "Money is the most successful story ever invented and told by human beings because it is the only story everyone believes… Not everyone believes in God, not everybody believes in human rights, not everybody believes in nationalism, but everybody believes in money.”
Is this true?
Many Americans share the belief expressed in the motto "In God we Trust," a slogan that became popular during the Civil War and was widely used by supporters of both the Union and the Confederacy. According to a lengthy Wikipedia article, the last bill President Lincoln signed before his assassination was to have that motto inscribed on US coins, and it has since been printed on all US currency.
While we may affirm the words "In God We Trust," what most of us actually rely on for our security and wellbeing is a US economy based more on the Almighty Dollar than on the worldwide reign of Almighty God, who has charged us to care for the earth and all of its inhabitants.
Money itself is worth no more than the paper or silver currency its inscribed on. In other words, a $1 bill is not intrinsically worth more than a $1000 one. And none of the gold stored in Fort Knox to back up its value is capable of feeding us or providing for any of our needs. It is only our common faith in the "worth-ship" (as in the word "worship") of that gold (currently valued at an all time high of over $5000 per troy ounce) that gives it any value.
Our ultimate security comes through being members of mutually supportive human communities like families, congregations and communities committed to serve and care for each other to the extent that no one starves unless everyone starves. Every other supposed source of security is subject to the kind of economic collapse the nation experienced in the Great Depression, and which the Confederacy experienced at the end of the Civil War, when its money became worthless.
https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2023/12/are-we-more-polytheistic-than-we-realize.html
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