Capitalism - the Ultimate Religion

[TheDarkestOfAngels]

Capitalism is in pretty much every country now. I don't know what people mean by "true" or "pure" capitalism anyway. Capitalism is an intelligently-manipulated, flexible, simultaneously oppressive and liberating concept anyway. The insistence on describing the impossibility of its "purity"or "trueness" seems to be aimed at liberal self-congratulation, and it seems to be almost every single atheist on this website takes the same line. The message is, yes capitalism is potentially oppressive but we liberals have designed mechanisms to make it as benign as possible to the largest possible number of people. That's part of the creed. When I say capitalism is a religion, I don't just mean it's like a religion. It actually is one. It shouldn't be surprising to us, it is the one true, universal religion that all other religions subordinate themselves to. The other religions bequeathed their belief systems to the world in the form of capitalism long before they entered their extended death throes which are now well advanced. Not long from now, atheists who have been successfully distracted will be able to say Look, the religions have died! while completely failing to spot the one big, all-pervasive, universal religion to which they are all fully subscribed, replete with all the trappings of the old religions: patriarchy, sin, guilt, blasphemy, belief and rationalistic enlightenment dogma to name but a few.

You do know what religion is, right? It goes something like this:

Religion is the belief in and worship of a god or gods, or a set of beliefs concerning the origin and purpose of the universe. It is commonly regarded as consisting of a person’s relation to God or to gods or spirits. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories associated with their deity or deities, that are intended to give meaning to life. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human nature.

The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith or belief system, but it is more than private belief and has a public aspect. Most religions have organised behaviors, congregations for prayer, priestly hierarchies, holy places and scriptures.

If necessary, I can provide other definitions from dictionary.com whatever I can google, but the above quote describes what religion actually is.
Since capitalism is an economic system with absolutely does not fit any description of a religion, then it cannot be defined as such and therefore your analogy is false. Aside from beliefs over certain aspects of a capitalist system - the system itself is well defined and requires no belief as to its operation whatsoever - being an entirely human construction.
While Capitalism seems to be the vessel for some wierdly religious beliefs (I call it Reagonism) it is, in itself, most certainly not the thing you said.

What people, such as I, notably mean by 'pure' or 'true' capitalism is essentially lassaz-faire capitalism - that is that businesses and the economic market operate with no government controls or regulation. This essentially makes it the opposite of the ideal of communism, in which the entire economy is a centrally planned economy or total government control.
Both of these things are ideals carried out by people but neither have ever been implimented successfully - and for good reason.

All but the most staunchly anti-government libertarians still recognize that at least some government control over the economy is necessary for the reason that Capitalism can fail when one business monopolizes a market. It's the problem the entire planet has right now with the entire world's oil industry. This is why most developed nations set the mark somewhere between all and no government and choose the setting that their constituants are most comfortable with.