“As to what are called national religions, we may, with as much pro-
priety, talk of national gods. It is either political craft or the remains of
the pagan system, when every nation had its separate and particular
deity.”
Thomas Paine
Rights of Man, Part II.
The one true national Gd is wealth; material collectivism for the edification of a single individual. Whether stock certificates, gold or diamonds, cold cash, wealth in countable dollars, euros, rubles, yen, or yuan, what have you, these the various and varied appellations, connotations for the Gd in which we trust.