Discrediting the Christian Core: The Ten Commandments as a Pathetic Basis for Morality
February 10th, 2008 by Kavan WolfeWhen non-Christians point out all contradictions and idiocies in the bible, Christians usually respond by claiming that they only believe in the core of the religion: things like the 10 commandments. However, the core stuff is just as asinine as the rest!
Christian mythology indicates that the 10 Commandments are the direct words of God. I call bullshit. If an all-powerful, omniscient supreme being wrote the definitive, eternal code of morality, it would have done a better job! Here is a concise list of the ten commandments (see here for more details):
1. You shall have no other gods before me
2. You shall not make for yourself an idol
3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
5. Honor your Father and Mother
6. You shall not murder
7. You shall not commit adultery
8. You shall not steal
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house, wife, slave, etc.
What these yahoos are telling me is that God thought to include ‘don’t work on Sunday’ but left out rape, assault, molestation and torture? If I wrote the Commandments, they would go something like this:
1. You shall not cause violence to a person, ever, except to defend yourself or another against an immediate, direct physical attack from that person.
2. You shall not torture… anyone… ever
3. You shall not rape, molest or harass
4. You shall not have slaves, serfs, or indentured workers
5. You shall protect the Earth and all its creatures, such that no species is made extinct, directly or indirectly, by humanity
6. You shall not discriminate against a person for things over which he or she has no control, with only such limitations as are inherent to specific activities (e.g., blind people can’t drive).
7. You shall not put your own interests ahead of humanity’s; you shall not accrue wealth by hurting others
8. You shall take responsibility for your actions and your lack of action
9. You shall respect freedom of thought; you shall not push your ideas upon others
10. You shall think critically about ideas and except accept nothing as dogma, including this list
Just ask yourself for a minute, which is the better list? I’m not saying that my list is perfect, but if my list is better then your God’s list, then either your God does not exist, or he did not write ‘his list’.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:30 am
Haha, nice list. Not sure about “You shall think critically about ideas and except nothing as dogma, including this list” though, it kinda says the first 9 commandments are optional if you think you have a reason to disagree with them…
BTW grammar nazi: did you mean accept?
February 11th, 2008 at 9:20 am
@Ashley
Accepting moral postulates just because some jackass said so is much of what’s gotten the world into this mess. This is not an endorsement of moral relativism as much as a call for people to think for themselves.
You’re quite right: I meant “accept.” Can you tell I write by posts using voice recognition?
February 11th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Hi Kavan, I think what I meant and what I wrote were two different things. I agree that everyone “should think critically about ideas and accept nothing as dogma”, I just imagined an omnipotent god would not include that in the list!
There is also a third possiblity, after (a) the god that wrote the first list does not exist and (b) the god does exist but did not write the list. That is (c) the god does exist and did write the the list, he just isn’t the nice guy Christians say he is. I mean the first four (original) commandments are all consistent with a very selfish god. Maybe he actually thinks torturing people is ok as long as you don’t do it on the Sabbath.
I’m being satirical, but only just…
Oh, and grammar nazi is satisfied with your excuse
February 11th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Check out George Carlin’s take on the 10 commandments. Essentially the number 10 was a marketing ploy and it’s a bloated list. He argues that they’re actually repetitive and knocks them down to about 2.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCz0-HY1TLU
Pretty great
February 11th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Try telling number 9 to a biblethumper, and number 8 to society in general.
February 20th, 2008 at 6:52 am
One big problem here is that you’ve pulled these 10 out of the context of the entire Bible. These 10 are just the start of the list, which includes self defense, rape, proper treatment of indentured servants (who sold THEMSELVES into slavery, by the way), caring for other people’s property (even your enemy’s), etc. And it was Jesus who first knocked them down to about 2 (actually, so did Hillel): 1 - Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your might. (Deuteronomy 6:4–9) 2 - Love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18)
In fact, the Bible covers your list very well, with the exception regarding dogma. You do have the “right” to ignore the commandments of the almighty God who created you, but then you’ll have to face Him someday and defend yourself. Good luck.
March 12th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
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