Comments on: The Gospel of Wealth http://zealfortruth.org/2007/06/the-gospel-of-wealth/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:01:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.3 By: Thainamu http://zealfortruth.org/2007/06/the-gospel-of-wealth/#comment-149 Thainamu Fri, 15 Jun 2007 18:28:36 +0000 http://zealfortruth.org/2007/06/the-gospel-of-wealth/#comment-149 The first thing I wanted to know after reading your post was "what were Andrew Carnegie's religious views?" One Google search attributed this quote to him: "I don’t believe in God. My god is patriotism. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life." In another place I found a theology prof's book review of an Andrew Carnegie biography, which said: "One of the findings that particularly interested me was Carnegie's religious views. Raised in a family that had little use for their native Church of Scotland, Carnegie attended a Swedenborgian enclave for a while as a teenager. But until he makes the acquaintance of Hebert Spencer, he wrestles to find a philosophy that articulates his own very secular beliefs. Spencer, the apostle of "Positivism," gives Carnegie the social evolutionary hope in progress that allows him to justify his own personal success and to view the world through rose-colored glasses. When the Great War is unleashed in 1914, Carnegie's faith is crushed, he lapses into an emotional breakdown and essentially stops communicating with the world until his death in 1919." I just wanted to know what was and was not motivating the man. The first thing I wanted to know after reading your post was “what were Andrew Carnegie’s religious views?” One Google search attributed this quote to him:

“I don’t believe in God. My god is patriotism. Teach a man to be a good citizen and you have solved the problem of life.”

In another place I found a theology prof’s book review of an Andrew Carnegie biography, which said:

“One of the findings that particularly interested me was Carnegie’s religious views. Raised in a family that had little use for their native Church of Scotland, Carnegie attended a Swedenborgian enclave for a while as a teenager. But until he makes the acquaintance of Hebert Spencer, he wrestles to find a philosophy that articulates his own very secular beliefs. Spencer, the apostle of “Positivism,” gives Carnegie the social evolutionary hope in progress that allows him to justify his own personal success and to view the world through rose-colored glasses. When the Great War is unleashed in 1914, Carnegie’s faith is crushed, he lapses into an emotional breakdown and essentially stops communicating with the world until his death in 1919.”

I just wanted to know what was and was not motivating the man.

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