Worlds most valuable religious symbol ever

Posted: December 6, 2007 at 3:58 pm

Worlds most valuable religious symbol ever

Recently a rock with a cross in it was put up on e-bay and advertised as a the most valuable religious symbol on EBAY ever! Which made me wonder what if some of the most famous icons in the history of religion were to be sold what they would go for…

Golden Tablets

90210 Green Religion: Mormon
Origin: Smith, the founder of that movement, said he obtained the plates on September 22, 1827 on Cumorah hill in Manchester, New York, where they were hidden in a buried box and protected by an angel named Moroni. He dictating a translation and obtaining signed statements by eleven other witnesses.
Description: A set of engraved plates, bound into a book. The plates were described as being made of "ore" bound with silver. The pages were 6×8 inches with 6 inches thick of 116 pages.
Current Location: Smith said he returned the plates to the angel in 1829.
Weight: 40-50 lbs

Value Proposition: Melted down the book would be worth less than 500K, however the LDS church has an estimated $30 billion in cash.
Estimated Value: $3 billion USD

Consolation Prize: A pair of sacred religious undergarments worn by LDS faithful sold for more than $1,000.

Retard Factor:

Xenu

90210 Green Religion: Scientology
Origin: Xenu (sometimes Xemu) is introduced as an alien ruler of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth in spacecraft resembling Douglas DC-8 airliners, stacked them around volcanoes and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living. Scientologists believe the alien souls continue to do this today, causing a variety of physical ill-effects in modern-day humans. Hubbard called these clustered spirits "Body Thetans", and the advanced levels place considerable emphasis on isolating them and neutralizing their ill effects.
Description: The Alien ruler is similar to a man but most of the Scientologists who work in their Dianetics* centres and so called "Churches" of Scientology do not know this story since they are not allowed to hear it until they reach the secret "upper" levels of Scientology. It may take them many years before they reach this level if they ever do. The ones who do know it are forced to keep it a secret and not tell it to those people who are joining Scientology.
Current Location: Loyal Officers finally overthrew him and they locked him away in a mountain on one of the planets. He is kept in by a force-field powered by an eternal battery and Xenu is still alive today.
Weight: 170 lbs

Value Proposition: The Church of Scientology and its many related organizations have amassed considerable real estate holdings worldwide, likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as a large amount of other funds from the practice of auditing. It would be worth nearly all of that to prove that the religion was based on more than a bad version of Star Wars.
Estimated Value: $200 million USD

Consolation Prize: $8 L Ron Hubbard Dianetics book available on Amazon, yes this religion is based on a science fiction author’s writings.

Retard Factor:

Ark of the Covenant

90210 Green Religion: Judaism
Origin: The Ark of the Covenant (in Hebrew: aron habrit) is described in the Bible as a sacred container, wherein rested the Tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments as well as other sacred Israelite pieces.
Description: The Bible describes the Ark as made of acacia or shittah-tree wood. It was about 130 cm x 78 cm x 78 cm or 4.29 x 2.57 x 2.57 feet. The Ark was covered all over with the purest gold. Its upper surface or lid, the mercy seat and was surrounded with a rim of gold.
Current Location: Unknown
Weight: 700 lbs

Value Proposition: The gold alone would be worth millions and stereotypes aside a lot of Jewish people have cash but are notoriously stingy.
Estimated Value: $15 million USD

Consolation Prize:Just in time for the holidays you can buy a jar full of dreidels for $34 on Amazon.

Retard Factor:

Holy Grail

90210 Green Religion: Christianity
Origin: According to Christian mythology, the Holy Grail was the dish, plate, or cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper, said to possess miraculous powers.
Description: If the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade has any authenticity at all it is an unassuming wood cup.
Current Location: Unknown
Weight: 15 oz.

Value Proposition: The net worth of the Catholic church is believed to be around 262 billion and that doesn’t even begin to count the other churches and televangelist.
Estimated Value: $400 Million USD

Consolation Prize:Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Last Crusade or Monty Python and the Holy Grail are both available for $19.

Retard Factor:

Buddha’s Pipal Tree

90210 Green Religion: Buddhism
Origin: Gautama Buddha the founder of Buddhism accepted a little milk and rice pudding from a village girl and then, sitting under a pipal tree or Sacred fig, (Ficus religiosa), now known as the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, he vowed never to arise until he had found the Truth. After 49 days meditating, at the age of 35, he attained bodhi, also known as "Awakening" or "Enlightenment" in the West.
Description: The Sacred Fig (Ficus religiosa) is a species of banyan fig native to Nepal and India, southwest China and Indochina east to Vietnam. It is known by a wide range of local names, such as Bo or pou (from the Sinhalese bo), Pipal (peepal, peepul, pippala, pimpal, etc.), arali or Ashvastha tree. It is a large dry season-deciduous or semi-evergreen tree up to 30m tall and with a trunk diameter of up to 3m.
Current Location: Unknown
Weight: 2000+ lbs

Value Proposition: Buddhists seek enlightenment by separating themselves from earthly possessions so the cash value will be low but it would make for an awesome hotel location and you could get asians to stream there like Mecca if advertised properly.
Estimated Value: $2 Million USD

Consolation Prize:Buddhist don’t shy away from worshiping icons and you can grab a decent buddha on Amazon for about $16.

Retard Factor:

72 Virgins

90210 Green Religion: Islam
Origin:The concept of 72 virgins in Islam refers to an aspect of paradise. In a collection by Imam at-Tirmidhi in his "Sunan" (Volume IV, Chapters on "The Features of Heaven as described by the Messenger of Allah", chapter 21: "About the Smallest Reward for the People of Heaven", hadith 2687)
Another interpretation of the relevant passages of the Qur’an is The Syro-Aramaic Reading Of The Qur’an written by Christoph Luxenberg. In respect of this particular point, Luxenberg argues that the relevant passage actually translates to a portrayal of paradise as a lush garden with pooling water and trees with rare fruit, including white raisins (considered to be delicacies at the time that the Qur’an was written), not virgin maidens.
Description: Some companions of Muhammad are reported to have said that men in heaven will be "busy in deflowering virgins". Ibn Kathir says that the houri "are delightful virgins of comparable age who never had sexual intercourse with anyone, whether from mankind or Jinns, before their husbands." by commenting,"in the other life, after they became old in this life, they were brought back while virgin, youthful, being delightfully passionate with their husbands, beautiful, kind and cheerful."
Current Location: Unknown – looking myself.
Weight: 8600 lbs+ (depending on the weight of the virgins)

Value Proposition: There are billions of dollars in oil to be found in the Arab world, although suicide bomber’s families typically paid around $25 thousand USD. Women sold into prostitution typically cost are purchased from anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars so we went with 72 times that.
Estimated Value: $1 Million USD

Consolation Prize:You can have your new soon to be mail order bride join the second virginity club for free.

Retard Factor:

Mother Earth

90210 Green Religion: Wicca
Origin: Wicca is a nature-based religion found in various countries throughout the world. It was first popularized in 1954 by Gerald Gardner, a retired British civil servant
Description: The Earth is all around us – so it’s the only relic currently available on the market.
Current Location: Everywhere around you
Weight: 6,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg

Value Proposition: Purchasing all of the land and sea on the planet would require more money than one could ever raise, however with global warming you should be able to build a self-sustaining bio dome and your great grandchildren will have the place to themselves.
Estimated Value: $16 Billion USD