The guy who invented chips

The guy who invented chips...


July 20th, 2009... Upon reading "The Age of Reason" by Thomas Paine, page 351-370 of Common Sense, Rights of Man, and other essential writings of Thomas Paine First Signet Classics Printing, New York, NY. 2003.

Thomas Paine, in “The Age of Reason,” calculated that the creation of the Christian church came about when a group of guys came together to vote on which of their 'holy’ books would best be combined to form the WORD OF GOD. Paine says:

When the Christian Mythologists established their system, they collected all the writings they could find, and managed them as they pleased. It is a matter altogether of
uncertainty to us whether such of the writings as now appear under the name of the Old and the New Testament, are in the same state in which those collectors say they found them; or whether they added, altered, abridged, or dressed them up. (362)

Perhaps most significantly, the organizers ". . .voted [the books they created from oral traditions] to be the word of God. . . ." and thereby, ". . .the belief of the one [common people] comes from the vote of the other [religious or otherwise powerful or influential people 1200 to 1600 years ago]" (363).

When I think about the psychological and sociological development intrinsic in this thought, I'm reminded of a saying I picked up in the decidedly less sanctimonious world of gaming, about the guy who invented chips. There is a subtle transformation that takes place in the mind of a person in a casino or other gaming facility, just as one bound by this aspect of Christian Tradition. The saying goes, "the guy who invented gambling was good, but the guy who invented chips was a genius."

What the hell does that mean?

Well, most legal gaming arenas use chips or tokens as the medium of exchange. People exchange or transform their money into venue-specific tokens just as in an arcade or subway. Once that transformation takes place, monetary value is removed from the realm of reality and decisions about tokens are made with less regard to their particular value, and more for the functional or recreational purposes for which they exist. In essence, the money's all spent before the encounter begins. Out of sight, out of mind. Token value may be won or lost, but it never enters the mind of the player as monetary value, as it only represents their ability to play on in the field of uncertain events.

I’ve heard people say, "I'd bet you but I don't have that many chips and I'm not buying any more," or words to that effect. By this logic one may assume that, commonly, people are not as sure of their opinions as they would let their money represent, but had they something already purchased or won to represent their idea with, they would bet they were correct.

In this instance, tokens are the medium of exchange in the arena in which our opinions about uncertain events may be avowed with no substantial reason or significant consequence.

Thusly, "Christian Mythologists," as Paine puts it, and all other groups of men that formed their own WORD OF GOD, are like the guy who invented chips -- in that the genius implicit in their deciding what is God's infallible word -- is that they assume control of the authority of God, and use God's authority to direct their fellow man. We pay for the experience of life up front when we're baptized into the community of everyone who agrees -- not that those men 1200 to 1600 years ago were right about the nature of God, but that it should be decided for us what one God we are all to envision. In essence, we pass the theory along as unquestionable, thereby affirming the message to generation after generation. We're told at every step by all those around us, regardless of true conviction, that the fear of punishment at the hands of an angry God is a good enough reason to take the 1200 to 1600 year-old men's word for it that they were the only authorities on God or idea of the afterlife... also uncertain events.

In this instance, the WORD OF GOD is the medium of exchange in another arena in which our opinions about uncertain events may be avowed with no substantial reason, but with hugely important consequences!

People study all the loopholes and riddles of religious teachings, and never consider that it might not really be the WORD OF GOD because the book itself tells you not to doubt it under penalty being hated by the very Creator of the Universe. The book or books men create and call the WORD OF GOD actually seek to replace God in the minds of common people. God out of sight, God out of mind. The similarity of religion to gaming is that the lives and suffering of real people are made to equal that of token value, because people with differing opinions only represent either other or no God, and therefore have no share in the realm of eternity. Religion allows men to reason that another man or group of people might as well suffer to death since they’re heading for hell anyway.

As a lover of humanity, I wont stand for it… much less teach it further.

Gambling Addicts lose themselves in the arena of token things so much that their real life is negatively effected. Many hard lessons have been learned by those that don't concern themselves with their real life, and let their play life take too much of their consideration. I learned better priorities, but some still continue to lose everything they'll ever get, always wondering why. There is, however, education available on this subject that is not considered sacrilege.

Religion Addicts, on the other hand, annihilate each other.

People's inability or unwillingness to live in or otherwise sustain peace is dependant upon our understanding that our religions say not only that we can't, but that anyone who tries to foster this peace is the "Anti-Christ," or whatever. It seems that the Devil is actually our invention of religion and we must deal swiftly with this enemy of reason before we let ourselves be destroyed.

About Satan and the Church's explanation of why he exists, Paine says it is simply because “they could not do without him; and after being at the trouble of making him, they bribed him to stay,” with the souls of all non-believers (360).

After over 200 years of allusion and dissent protected in figurative language and metaphor, it is finally upon us in this time to realize that we may have peace in the world, and that it does not make sense that the creator of all of this would actually want us to kill and or destroy everything we behold. Education, for religion addicts, has been and still is considered sacrilege, though death and suffering are tolerated much less today it seems.

Please make no mistake, religious tension is at the heart of a great number of prejudices and conflict in the world today. Paine says of the Christian bible, “it is impossible to conceive a story more derogatory to the Almighty, more inconsistent with his wisdom, more contradictory to his power, than this story is” (360).

In order to make for it a foundation to rise upon, the inventors were under the necessity of giving to the being, whom they call Satan, a power equally as great, if not greater, that they attribute to the Almighty. They have not only given him the power of liberating himself from the pit, after what they call his fall, but they have made that power increase afterwards to infinity. (360)

Failure to understand true or reasonable principles of life and liberty have led to addiction of all kinds in the search for meaning. Unfortunately, the lonely “that’s just the way it is” attitude is all many people have to justify abnormal systems and responses. I’ve dealt (at great cost to my health at times) with this issue, and have resurfaced to find not only that I can make my way in this world, but that now that I’m having a kid, I want a reasonable world for them as well.
If one is true and honest about their intent, there is no such thing a failure. Life is a series of lessons. It is unfortunate that we’ve been preached a way of life that seems to fly in the face of God because men realized how to control us by our fears. Education and Reason yield the kind of peace that fear will never allow.

Any comment is welcome... I'll never claim to be an authority on much....