Will the Pope Declare Google Evil?

theodp writes "In the next few days, Pope Benedict XVI plans to issue his second encyclical, in which he is expected to denounce the use of tax havens as socially unjust and immoral in that they cheat the greater well-being of society. He is also expected to argue that the globalized economic world needs to be regulated. Prime technology companies playing the offshore 'profit laundering' game include Dell, Google, Microsoft, and Sun, who set up subsidiaries in Ireland, where the corporate tax rate is a low 12.5% and no taxes are charged on royalties (e.g. from patents)."

Comments

Politics

[packetmon]

In these days and age its sad to see there still is limited separation of church and state. I wonder when the time will be that most of these church fraudsters will be exposed - bank accounts and all - so we can see who is taking um... donations.

He won't declare that Google is evil

[saskboy]

However, he will proclaim that surfing with anti-spyware technology prevents the natural and Godly transmission of malware-life, so that it can grow on your computer.

Bleh...

[joss]

Cornering the world's search engine market: $80bn
Getting called evil by ex-members of the Nazi youth: priceless

Although, I must admit, just because something is priceless doesnt
mean one wouldnt rather just have the money sometimes given
a suitable figure.

Can I declare the Pope Evil?

[bariswheel]

For lack of understanding global economics, for basing judgments on literature with no backing/evidence? Don't get me started.

Re:Can I declare the Pope Evil?

[dal20402]

Hasn't every war in history been started by either those-collecting-taxes or those-who-want-to-collect-taxes ?

Um, no, quite a few of them were caused by... popes (and other religious figures), not over taxes, but over stupid, unintelligible points of dogma.

Fanatical, nonsensical devotion inspires people to kill senselessly no matter what facet of life inspired it.

The pope sucks.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think Google should tell the pope and all the popes before him to take a flying fuck. Why cares if the some man says something is evil? The popes (yes, lowercase) are fucking figure heads that don't deserve any power. The popes can go ahead and say the world is evil. Who gives a fuck what some self righteous moron says? And what is "evil," anyway? Evil and good are subjective adjectives given by opinionated pricks. It doesn't mean anything. Just because some book gives him power, who should believe some made up book? Gods are made up to explain things people don't understand. With science, people don't have to believe anything. A hypothesis can be tested. Popes are obsolete. They all are backward and should be stripped of their power. Religion in deities is ridiculous, too. Why do Churches still exist and why does the Pope has so much money (greedy bastard)? A lot of people are stupid. No wonder so many people struggle in science.

Anonymous Coward Sig 2.0:
--
Madonna is the best artist in the world! Madonna is like the C programming language.

Re:The pope sucks.

[Grishnakh]

Please, can somebody mod this guy down to Flamebait/Troll? I really find such mindless anti-religious prejudice very disturbing. And me with no mod points....

Typical religious person: wants to suppress anything they don't agree with, rather than disagree and argue the facts.

About a billion Roman Catholics care (to one extent or another) what the Pope says.

About a billion Muslims don't give a rat's ass what the Pope says, and neither do about a billion Hindus, and about a billion non-religious Chinese. I'd say the Roman Catholics are in the minority.

I find it amusing that you think that "with science, people don't have to believe anything." A lot of philosophical schools would debate that. At minimum, you need to believe that your reality is "real", something not all would immediately affirm.

If your reality isn't "real", you've got major issues and this argument (or any argument) is moot.

I do see the need for and value of philosophy. However, philosophy isn't about making up pretend beings and worshipping them, it's about dealing with things that transcend the nuts-and-bolts of science, like dealing with ethics. Philosophers have come up with numerous different ethical systems, and have their reasons for supporting them or using them. Religionists tell them that "God" tells them what's right and wrong (although he never seems to do a very good job of telling them, and so they argue about it endlessly).

o you have any idea what the Pope is actually paid and actually owns? He doesn't actually have a "salary" as such and personally owns very little. He just lives in a palace, which he doesn't really own.

I'm sure lots of people would love to live in a palace with servants, even if they didn't own it. What is ownership, anyway? That's just where society has set up a system allowing you to claim possession of things, and to enforce that claim against anyone who would challenge it or attempt to take it by force. If you "own" a house, but a gang comes in and throws you out and moves in, and there's no government to step in and correct the situation, and you don't have a strong enough gang to beat them back, then you no longer own the house. The Pope may not legally "own" his palace, but for all intents and purposes, he does. A big organization has given him use of the house, and will enforce that promise. He gets to live there as long as he lives or until he retires (which is probably when he dies, judging by past popes' actions), so I say he owns it.

He does have access to the "Peter's Pence" collection from around the world, which may be several (maybe hundreds of) millions, but is mostly used for his charitable purposes and just to pay the bills at the Vatican.

Again, what need do you have of your own money if someone is bankrolling a wealthy lifestyle for you? You don't need cold, hard cash if you're set up in a palace, and have maids and servants to do everything you want. Many people would kill for such a life of luxury. Money is just a way of accomplishing that end; when you're the Pope, you don't need that particular means to that end.

Such an uneducated and unintelligent rant as this is a waste of bandwidth, as is any attempt to make sense of and reply to it.

It sure is convenient to put down arguments with terms like "unintelligent" when you don't like them or agree with them, isn't it? Your argument is the one that is uneducated and unintelligent. See? I can do it too. Why did I just waste all this time replying to your points when I could just call you a moron instead, and dismiss your points as unintelligent ranting?

Of course, you replied to some of his minor points, but you never did address the real question which is: why do we need religion, and why should we worship someone's god?

I too find "religion in deities" to be ridiculous, almost as much as I would actual belief in multiple deities, but I believe in only One. So, too, does the pope, I hear.

Vatican history

[Just some bastard]

I'll have to watch the popes speech so I can laugh at the hypocrisy.

Thou Shall NOT Steal ... taxation is theft

[argoff]

Last time I checked, the 7th commandment of God says "thou shall not steal", and the 9th "do not covet thy neighbors goods". I didn't see an exemption in there - "thou shall not steal unless you do it in the form of mass coveting in the form of a democratic mob"