When 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’.
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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?
@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?
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
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
Try telling number 9 to a biblethumper, and number 8 to society in general.
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.
[...] counter-arguments about those parts being wrong but the “basic teachings” being right. The basic teachings are just as crazy as the rest. To [...]
What an excellent blog, I’ve added your feed to my RSS reader.
@Ashley, good point
@yf35, yes, Carlin gave me the idea
@H, good point – Biblethumpers need a kick in the ass, by and large.
@igotsix, I suggest reading the book of leviticus. If an omnipotent god wrote a book, he wouldn’t contradict himself between versions, saying slavery is ok in one book and not in the other. And I don’t know what indentured servants you’re referring to, but I’m referring to the poor bastards in places like Saudi Arabia that have their passports apprehended so they can’t leave and are paid far less than they’re promised: http://www.sptimes.com/2002/webspecials02/saudiarabia/day3/story1.shtml
@Editor, thanks for the support.
I have read the book of Leviticus, but it only mentions slaves (servants) a few times. Exodus and Deuteronomy cover the subject just as much. You’ll have to reference specific examples of where you think there are contradictions. (Have you actually read the book of Leviticus yourself?)
I never said that all slavery was righteous. Of course there are many examples of mankind sinfully enslaving one another. The Bible covers the PROPER treatment of “slaves”. This includes giving them one day off a week, freeing them after 6 years, not returning a runaway slave to his master, freeing ALL slaves on the “year of jubilee” even if they haven’t been with their masters for 6 years yet, not oppressing a servant because they are poor.
Of course the slavery you linked to is terrible, and the Bible would agree that it is terrible. You’ll have to show me where the Bible would support that type of slavery.
@igotsix, You’re fucking kidding me. “The Bible covers the PROPER treatment of “slaves””? What are you Klan? Don’t post here anymore. In fact, I recommend exiting this world for whatever afterlife you believe in as quickly as possible, before you can infect anyone else with your pathological misconceptions of morality.
Again, as I said before, the “slaves” referred to in Leviticus are “indentured servants”, people who sold themselves into “slavery”.
At the time, if you had a debt to someone that you couldn’t pay, you could become a servant to work off the debt. There were no bankruptcy courts. After 6 years, you were free to go. The servant was certainly not to be treated poorly. In other cultures, the debtor was put into debtor’s prison, and maybe even tortured, until he could pay off the debt. Of those two, I would pick slavery for myself.
I won’t post here anymore, as there is no intelligent discourse, only slander. I don’t even think you read my posts, let alone Leviticus.
Please don’t email me again, unless you have some constructive comments.
I think your list is more accurate than the original 10 commandments. I have briefly studied theology in my free time and find a lot of what the bible has to say is very contradicting. Comparing older testaments to new, there are many discrepancies.