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What the Mark of the Beast Taught Me About the Future of Money

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Re: What the Mark of the Beast Taught Me About the Future of Money

#31

Post by madelinecameron »

intopieces wrote: post #8
jzymbaluk wrote: post #3

This is a very fascinating story for me. I remember as a child my ( conservative, christian ) parents having long, serious discussions about credit cards and banking. They were wrestling with the same section of scripture that the writer quoted, Revelations 13:16-17: "It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,so that they co…

Serious question: What is the difference between having a card and having a chip? I mean, theologically, and what is your particular hesitation? Growing up in a conservative, christian household myself, there were rumblings that the Mark of the Beast had already arrived in the form of a Social Security Number.

Not really a whole lot.

When I told my family about how much I wanted to get an RFID chip implanted in my hand my grandma flipped. She called me Satan, totally unjokingly.

I learned quickly to just not speak about technology. The top comment on the article proves why (People don't understand it)

Re: What the Mark of the Beast Taught Me About the Future of Money

#32

Post by pavel_lishin »

madelinecameron wrote: post #28
theandrewbailey wrote: post #5

Does any one have a guess as to how future-proof these current chips are? Just like other new tech products, I can't imagine that they will be fully compatible with the majority of the payment ecosystem in 10 years.

They are just radio-frequency chips. Unless people start changing the bands NFC and RFID use, it really shouldn't need to be replaced. Maybe if the battery somehow ran out but then I don't have a CompE degree so I can't really speak about the in-depth detail about RFID chips and their power consumption (besides they really don't consume a lot). Maybe to get a chip with more storage (These chips are really tiny storag…

I believe that RFID are not battery powered - the signal that pings them is what powers them.

Re: What the Mark of the Beast Taught Me About the Future of Money

#33

Post by dragonwriter »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #4
jzymbaluk wrote: post #3

This is a very fascinating story for me. I remember as a child my ( conservative, christian ) parents having long, serious discussions about credit cards and banking. They were wrestling with the same section of scripture that the writer quoted, Revelations 13:16-17: "It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,so that they co…

I don't understand why Christians get anxious about applying events in Revelations to the current day. Do they not believe that they aren't going to be here for it?

Well, because there is a decent case to be made, one that is favored by a number of Christian scholars, that at least some of the events the book is referring to occur in the past, not the present or future.

Re: What the Mark of the Beast Taught Me About the Future of Money

#34

Post by slededit »

MikeNomad wrote: post #6

Cash is not going away anytime soon for at least a couple of reasons: Trust (Account Overloards say I have 100 USD in my account when I actually have 1,000), and cash is a very handy debt instrument for the issuer. (and) FDR did not take the US off the gold standard, he outlawed private ownership of gold. Nixon took the US off the gold standard in the early 70s.

FDR in effect broke the gold standard in two ways:

1) First since gold was illegal to own, Federal notes were effectively no longer redeemable for gold

2) The dollar was inflated from $20.67/oz to $35/oz

This meant two things; first the dollar was backed in gold by name only since you couldn't actually take advantage of that fact in any quantity. Second the Government was able to change the dollar/gold ratio at its whim. This breach of trust meant that the dollar was not and would never again be as good as actual gold.

Re: What the Mark of the Beast Taught Me About the Future of Money

#35

Post by dicroce »

Let me begin by saying that I am a Christian.

Generally speaking I am a big believer that much of the Bible needs to be interpreted, and in general I don't buy into the idea that it is infallible. That said, I don't think I could get a chip implanted in my right hand for payment purposes! It's just so on the nose with what the scripture actually says.

Re: What the Mark of the Beast Taught Me About the Future of Money

#36

Post by bobwaycott »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #24
MikeNomad wrote: post #6

Cash is not going away anytime soon for at least a couple of reasons: Trust (Account Overloards say I have 100 USD in my account when I actually have 1,000), and cash is a very handy debt instrument for the issuer. (and) FDR did not take the US off the gold standard, he outlawed private ownership of gold. Nixon took the US off the gold standard in the early 70s.

There are innumerable small shops/cafes/restaurants that are cash only. Will banks or governments subsidize or provide free equipment in order to not harm the idolized small business owners and job creators?

Nah. They'll champion the market's infallible ability to work it all out.

Re: What the Mark of the Beast Taught Me About the Future of Money

#37

Post by bobwaycott »

throwanem wrote: post #18
fu9ar wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are also Christians who believe it was an allegorical story based on events that were happening when it was written.

Yes, and we call these "most Christians". Dispensationalism of whatever stripe is pretty unusual, for all that it was heavily discussed last decade.

I don't know about this being most Christians. From my hyper-conservative, Christian upbringing to the present day, meeting any who think of Revelation as allegory of events long past has been exceedingly rare. Perhaps especially here in the southeastern US.

Re: What the Mark of the Beast Taught Me About the Future of Money

#38

Post by ezarowny »

As the article makes quite clear, mobile payments are overrated. However, I have experienced a situation where mobile payments have been better than existing systems. Not too long ago, I discovered some fraudulent transactions on my credit card transaction log. My bank, Chase, immediately issued me a new credit card. Apple Pay updated within less than 15 minutes with the new card while it took a number of days for the new credit card to arrive in the mail.

Re: What the Mark of the Beast Taught Me About the Future of Money

#39

Post by filoeleven »

protomyth wrote: post #17
intopieces wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Serious question: What is the difference between having a card and having a chip? I mean, theologically, and what is your particular hesitation? Growing up in a conservative, christian household myself, there were rumblings that the Mark of the Beast had already arrived in the form of a Social Security Number.

Some groups teach "the mark of the beast" fairly literally (e.g. SSN, credit cards, etc.), but I was taught it is not literal but symbolic of having to profess a heretical belief to participate in commerce with the hand / head position relating to the way you professed the belief. It goes along with the rest of the symbolism in Revelations. Literal vs Symbolic is a long running topic in most Christian churches.

> I was taught it is not literal but symbolic of having to profess a heretical belief to participate in commerce with the hand / head position relating to the way you professed the belief.

I remember something similar from a course I took in college, perhaps, or something I read later. Whatever it was it went even further with the symbolism: the idea was that the mark on the forehead represents the way in which one thinks, and the mark on the hand represents the way in which one acts. The takeaway was that it wasn't so much that one would be forced to make a claim of some sort in order to participate in the system of commerce, but rather that by participating in the system one is already marked by it.

I liked this interpretation because it changed the emphasis from one of watching out for some piece of technology or some bitter-tasting oath that you'd have to profess--both of which seem like they'd raise red flags to even the most casual Christian and are therefore unlikely to be much of a real threat--to one of looking inward and evaluating how your own participation in any system of exchange is subtly affecting the way you look at the world and at other people. (You can also see how this isn't terribly compatible with the brand of prosperity theology that has infected some branches of American Protestantism.)

Re: What the Mark of the Beast Taught Me About the Future of Money

#40

Post by madelinecameron »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #32
madelinecameron wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are just radio-frequency chips. Unless people start changing the bands NFC and RFID use, it really shouldn't need to be replaced. Maybe if the battery somehow ran out but then I don't have a CompE degree so I can't really speak about the in-depth detail about RFID chips and their power consumption (besides they really don't consume a lot). Maybe to get a chip with more storage (These chips are really tiny storag…

I believe that RFID are not battery powered - the signal that pings them is what powers them.

Ah okay, yeah. I knew they were active and passive RFID tags but I think the last time I played with some was almost a decade ago, haha.
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