Morality and Religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Morality and Religion - Essay Example For example, offering animal and human sacrifices would comprise of such acts of appeasing the Gods. It these early days of religion, Gods were sought after as a matter of survival of the tribe or clan; and religious beliefs as they existed had little to do with morality. Irrespective of whether there was a cause-effect relationship between religious rituals and natural events, it is fair to say that primitive religious practices were done as a matter of survival and morality found no consideration. (Taliaferro, 2006) In wasnt until the rise of organized religion around two thousand years ago that the importance of morality to human lives got more attention. Seen from a theoretical viewpoint, all the major monotheistic religions – Christianity, Islam and Judaism – seem to fall under the non-consequentialist framework. The primary tenets of these religions ordain followers to act, think and behave in certain ways, not on the basis of rationality and logic but for the sake of virtues inherent in them. The immutability of religious commandments have made them controversial throughout history. Given that there is never any unanimous agreement about the validity and applicability of a certain principle under all contexts, it then follows that the non-consequentialist basis of most religions make them inadequate in dealing with social, interpersonal and individual problems. A good example of this point is the raging debate going on about stem-cell research in the United States. While stat istics clearly show that scientific advancement in this area would generally benefit humankind, these projects have been thwarted or hampered by fundamentalist Christian believers who take the word of the bible rather too literally. The same contingency is vehemently opposing the practice of abortion, irrespective of the consequences to baby and mother in the future. In contemporary times, fervent atheist

EC Policy on VAT Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

EC Policy on VAT Assessment - Essay Example Nonetheless, the players in the financial services sector have emerged in recent years as among the largest groups of companies in the world and, despite this fragmentation, financial service companies as a group have become by far the most profitable in the world. For example, the UK-based financial services conglomerate HSBC and Barclays are among the world's largest corporations. For this reason, the European Commission in the 1990s took up a plan to include financial services and insurances in the value added tax (VAT) system for all member states, with the primary purpose of making the markets for financial services efficient. The plan was embodied in the Sixth VAT Directive of EC, part of the Financial Services Action Plan which was issued in 1977. Under the EC Treaty, all member states are obliged to adopt EC Directives into their own statutes although they can choose the forms or methods by which to implement them1. The 1977 VAT directive, however, was met with hostility by m ember states, which were reluctant to implement the tax measure. This paper tracks the difficulty of modernizing the VAT system for financial and insurance services for EU that would be acceptable to all and would advance the EC policy of promoting integration and competition in this industry for Europe's future growth in prosperity and employment. A critical evaluation of the compromise measure proposed by EC is in order as a way of contributing to the consultation process being conducted by the Commission to craft a more realistic and more acceptable VAT system for financial and insurance services. Thus, the paper attempts to present an opinion on whether the new VAT system proposed by EC will be more successful than the first. Problems & Issues Financial markets have developed in such a way that even interpretation of classic terms like credit gives rise to difficulties. The Commission services have been confronted with an increasing number of cases where economic operators and member states had problems in interpreting the definitions of exempt services under the Sixth VAT Directive. These cases often reflect the complexity of financial and insurance products, extending to questions such as whether there is a taxable supply and where the place of supply is located. The most serious objections to the imposition of VAT on financial services and insurance firms were the absence of a readily identifable mechanism for efficiently implementing the tax proposal, and the increase in consumer credit that it is expected to generate. Another issue raised against the imposition of VAT on customers of financial and insurance services was the way it offends political sensibilities2. The financial services industry, being engaged in the management of money, involves public interest because a bank run, for example, can harm a national economy. Thus, governments of EU member states carefully regulate the operation of these companies, such that in UK, the Financial Services Authority has been clothed with greater powers to go after financial services firms that mishandle their affairs and funds3. The difficulty for EC consisted mainly in the impossibility of establishing taxable amounts and the amounts of deductible VAT without