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I made this one up. All by myself.

See, today I was thinking. About government, and where all the money comes from. Mostly it's taxes, but there are a few other sources of cash.

Like the lottery. Most governments these days have lotteries. People pay money for a ticket and then watch themselves not win.

But in ancient times, they didn't have lotteries. They had something else. Whenever the government needed a quick fix for cash, they'd plunder a church or two.

The secret is that selling lottery tickets and plundering churches are basically about the same thing: taking money from idiots.

The only difference is that the lottery is a little bit more devious.

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Na church funds is also about taking mony from idiots...

Never underestimate a human's capacity for active stupidity.
Sorry about my lousy English ? can we talk in Swedish :)

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Mark Twain's reaction to being confronted by beggars on the steps of an Italian cathedral in which he had just seen vast quantities of precious metals, gems and priceless works of art:

"O sons of classic Italy, is the spirit of endeavor, of noble self-reliance, utterly dead within ye? Curse your indolent worthlessness, why don't you rob your church?"

Growing fat on other people's fear and credulity while providing no tangible good in return is just a racket. In fact, some of our organized religions remind me an awful lot of the "protection" racket in particular:

"Nice little immortal soul ya got going here. We wouldn't want to see something really bad happen to it in the next world, now would we?"

Boris Karloff died for your sins.

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