

Vatican magazine says hackers do God’s work - ffpaladin
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42459193/

======
dgraunke
Here's the abstract for the article itself[1], translated by Google:

 _It is now common belief that hackers are saboteurs, if not real criminals.
Talking about ethical hacker can then play even ironic. This article attempts
to shed light on their history, their true identity and their "philosophy",
clearly distinguishing them from the cracker, illegal operators. Investigating
the patterns of life and intellectual pursuits hacker, based on creativity and
sharing, it is discussed to be compatible with a Christian vision of life.
Without unduly compare the hacker community and Christian community, it is
concluded as Christians and hackers today, in a world devoted to the logic of
profit, they still have much to be, as is clear from the experience of hackers
who make their faith a pulse of their creative work._

[1]
[http://www.laciviltacattolica.it/it/quaderni/articolo/2546/e...](http://www.laciviltacattolica.it/it/quaderni/articolo/2546/etica-%C2%ABhacker%C2%BB-
e-visione-cristiana/)

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pepitablue
Wow that's a very interesting spin on the morality of hacking. Maybe the
priest should resign and become the PR person for the hacking community? ;p

I can understand the point made by the priest, but I wonder if he'd say the
same about anarchists? Since just about all governments these days are corrupt
and unsympathetic towards the plight of their constituency, then you would
think the priest would also congratulate those who are philosophically and
actively opposed to these un-Godly governments? Except...

All is fine and "Godly" until hackers or anarchists engage in destructive
behavior, which is not in line with the teachings of Jesus. This Robin Hood
idea of stealing from the rich, or even destroying property because it's owned
by "evil", is wrong because both are forms of violence, which Jesus was
against for obvious reasons - both acts violate individuals. Whether or not
these individuals deserved it or are "evil" is inconsequential: two wrongs
don't make a right. So I'm kind of disappointed that this disclaimer wasn't
brought up by the priest, if at least towards the end of his comment. There
exist more positive ways to combat negative forms of competition or scarcity
issues created by ownership of property; violation of individuals doesn't need
to be the answer. Although seeing the sketchy and hypocritical history of
Catholics, I shouldn't be too disappointed by the omission...

~~~
Qz
Neither of those two acts violate individuals. 'Property' is merely a
convenient fiction.

~~~
thret
How does the conclusion that theft and property damage do not violate
individuals get even one thumb up?

~~~
Qz
I'm not really an anarchist, but I do think it's important to distinguish
between living breathing human beings, as opposed to the social and cultural
structures we impose upon each other. I am not my property. You cannot
'violate' me by stealing or destroying the things I 'own'.

------
jarin
Sometimes I wish it was the other way around (God doing this hacker's work) :)

~~~
redthrowaway
I'd hope you could do better than the platypus.

------
rbanffy
I like to remind my Christians friends (and those who aren't friends) the
ideals of Free Software - of setting people free and allowing them to help
each other by means of giving them the software along with the resources
required to improve upon it and share the results is very Christian. As much
as the values of proprietary software, of enslaving your users and imprisoning
them in a dependency relationship easy to abuse are completely against those
same Christian values.

It's fun to watch their heads explode.

More recently, I have enjoyed quoting the "we fight for the users" line from
Tron. Mostly because we really do.

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joshuacc
Shoddy reporting. This is like claiming that the White House is pro-hacker
because of an interview that appeared on Massachusetts Public Radio

La Civiltà Cattolica is _not_ a Vatican magazine. It is a Jesuit magazine. And
I highly doubt that the magazine itself endorses Fr. Antonio Spadaro's
opinion.

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HedgeMage
I find it hilarious that a Catholic order thinks there's anything Catholic (as
opposed to catholic) about hacking. The open-source community is de-
centralized and libertarian-to-anarchist, while the Catholic Church is built
on blind faith in a central authority in deciding what is right for all (even
when that "right" is protecting child rapists).

The only thing that could be funnier is if they quoted Eric S. Raymond, author
of The Cathedral and the Bazaar, which talked about that aspect of hacker
culture, and who is an unapologetic atheist Wiccan.

...oh wait, they did.

~~~
cicero
The Catholic Church specifically teaches blind faith is wrong, so maybe you
don't understand Catholicism as well as you think you do.

Edit - Catechism reference: <http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__PX.HTM>

------
olalonde
So chances are RMS really will become Saint iGNUcus!?

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIF5xnkcncI>

------
0003
How long until Sony personnel are excommunicated from the Church?

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russell
Now I know where to send the invoices.

------
jeromec
_In their passionate commitment to creating, and their openness to sharing
ideas, hackers see their online exploits as “a form of participation in the
‘work’ of God in creation,”_

Given that logical reasoning is usually a strong trait common to hackers, it's
a bit ironic to have the Vatican attempt to speak for hackers. Perhaps someone
should email them this poll <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1486594>.

~~~
luminous00
I'm a Catholic hacker. Apparently I am a rare breed around here.

~~~
patio11
Not so rare.

~~~
jterce
Not rare at all.

~~~
cicero
Definitely not.

------
joubert
If you make them believe anything, you can make them do anything.

------
hendler
Sysadmins are Gods

Hackers do Gods' work

Makes sense to me.

------
mthsf
I think I'd rather be the kind of hacker that breaks things, than the kind of
hacker who gets praise from a man who employs thousands of child molesters and
whose company has been responsible for more atrocities than hitler, stalin,
and mao could have been capable of in their lucid wet dreams.

~~~
rfurmani
Okay, the church is not perfect, but Hitler Stalin and Mao did inconceivably
more evil in a few years than anything out of the church in the past century
or two. What atrocities are you referring to?

