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When I became an atheist, I found the Ten Commandments no longer adequate for me and my life, so I created Ten Aspirations. What follows is my original post from 2007:
At this point in my life I pretty much have an allergic reaction to the word "commandments". But, often as a believing Mormon, especially after learning a little more about how humans function psychologically, I began to be dissatisfied with the big Ten. With all the wisdom, insight, and understanding of human nature and our needs that God was supposed to have, the Ten Commandments seemed to be lacking in the instructions that would really be useful to humankind.There is no commandment against physical abuse. There is no commandment to work for social justice. It would have been nice if the message in the Beattitudes was in the big Ten.
Now, I don't believe in god anymore. I realize that today many of the big Ten are ignored and violated, many times even by believers. But, for many, many years people tried to live by the big Ten and many still do today. So, if you could change history, what would you make the Ten Commandments, if you knew that many people would try to live by them?
As a reminder, here is a list of the old commandments:
ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.'
TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'
THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.'
FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'
FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.'
SIX: 'You shall not murder.'
SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.'
EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.'
NINE: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.'
TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.'
Here is my revised list:
1) Strive to use your best judgment. Realize that these statements are aspirational in nature. Their intent is to guide and inspire toward the very highest ethical ideals. There may be times when the most appropriate course is to supercede one of these principles, so use your best judgment. Practice moderation - you need not run faster than you have strength.
2) Strive to limit the harm one causes. Be aware of the possible consequences of your actions, and make a reasonable effort to not cause unnecessary injury or obstruction or damage. This includes harm to one's self, others, all nature and the environment. This does not mean that you should seclude yourself so as to limit the chances of doing anyone harm and it is understood that by living you will cause some harm - you have to eat something, your body fights bacteria, you will produce some waste products, etc. Be reasonable with one's expectations on this point.
3) Strive to benefit one's self, others, and the environment. In as much as it is possible, and with respect for the desires of others (i.e., don't help when your help is reasonably not wanted), help all to live healthily and adaptively.
4) Strive to be trustworthy. Excepting times when honesty puts others in danger, seek to be honest in your dealings with others. Hold in confidence information that should be kept confidential. Act with integrity and be true and honest with one's self.
5) Strive to take appropriate responsibility for one's actions. Keep your word and uphold your commitments. Repair the damage your actions may have caused. Sincerely apologize to, and if possible reimburse, individuals you may have injured. Know the laws and what is expected of you. Once you have done what you can to right your wrongs, forgive yourself and move on.
6) Strive to be fair and just. Inasmuch as possible practice equity. Be aware of and try to limit the influence of one's biases and prejudices.
7) Strive to respect and protect the rights and dignity of one's self, others, and all of creation. It is not enough to ensure that you are not mistreating others, you must strive for social justice for humans and the humane treatment of animals. All people have a right to self-determination. Special safeguards may be necessary to protect the rights and welfare of persons or communities whose vulnerabilities impair autonomous decision making.
8) Strive to be patient and forgiving. Try to have patience with one's self, others, and anticipated events in life. Free yourself of the bondage of resentment and disappointment.
9) Strive to gain understanding. Knowledge enables one to make better use of that which is available and helps one to successfully adapt to one's environment.
10) Strive to love, show empathy, and be compassionate. We are a social species and for much of our lives are dependent on one another. It is important to our well-being and mental and emotional health to have strong relationships with others. Loving is satisfying to the soul and beautiful. Empathy and compassion can calm arguments and disagreements.
i think the reason the ten commandments were so simple is because thats what people were up to back then,killin,sleepin around,not respectin mammy and daddy,although it goes on today,but for God to have to tell you not to do these things,makes ya wonder how much cop-on these people had,no disrespect,they were treated horribly,if the storys are true,but hey karma's a *****,we all got our $h1t to go through and learn from,evena lifetime of slavery wont last forever.
Actually for the original commandments, you'll need to go back to the Egyptian Book of The Dead, which is one of the earlier religious texts that the authors of the Torah/Old testament clearly plagiarized.
'
Plagiarized? No.
Modeled after? Possibly.
Another example of the various Ancient Near Eastern law codes? Yes.
This generalization that the Bible is "plagiarizing" everything else, simply because it happens to be an ANE body of work that was produced by individuals who were steeped in previous traditions and were not afraid to work with those traditions (whether in a demythologizing manner, or in a standing-on-previous-giants manner), is not accurate at all.
An example of the "plagiarism" of the "Decalogue": 1) The prohibition against idol worship. 2) All manner of life (both human and animal) keeping a Sabbath day of non-work. 3) The prohibition against desiring a neigbor's possessions.
Obviously, I'm being sarcastic when I say that the above are examples of plagiarism: for they are "clearly" not, and unique to the "Ten Commandments".
Everett Fox, in his commentary and translation of The Five Books of Moses notes that
in a form relatively rare in ancient Near Eastern legal documents, a god sets forth demands, with no punishments listed. This 'apodictic' form seems to indicate that the Ten Words function as a preamble to the actual laws of Chaps. 21-23, by laying forth the major principles on which Israel's relationship to God is to be based (p. 368, Schocken Books, New York, 1995).
This gives us another view of the "uniqueness" of the Decalogue, and helps point out that the Law Code of the Israelites was not just limited to these "Ten" Commandments. The end of Deuteronomy includes potent curses for non-fulfillment in the standard covenantal-treaty model of the Ancient Near East.
Quote:
Originally Posted by newhandle
For the origional 10, you need to go to the Jewish Bible. This post quotes the Catholic 10 Commandments and versions thereof. They are very different, for example, the first commandment is: I am the Lord your G-d who has taken you out the land of Egypt. The Jewish commandments do not say, thou shall not kill, rather You shall not murder. They very different.
You are referring to the Septuagintal re-ordering of the Commandments?
Quote:
Originally Posted by tobar0972
First of all the ORIGINAL ten commandmets does not say, "thou shalt not kill".. It says, "thou shalt not murder". Second of all This is a complete mockery of God and his word and I think the authors of these post need to get on the face and ask their creator for forgivness.
Catholic versions and mockery aside, the translation of "murder" vs "kill" is open to interpretational debate, and always has been. It has been a popular apologetic method to claim that it only means "murder", for this would excuse the amount of "kill"ing that occurs in the Bible. Apolgetics aside, it's never wise to base a choice of translation on Apologetics. The Jewish Study Bible gives a perfect example of this exact type of possible Apologetics at work in it's comment on the Commandment, in which it says "....'kill' is too broad; it implies that even capital punishment and war are prohibited, whereas the Torah sometimes mandates these" (p. 150, Oxford, 2004).
J. Edgar Park, in his exegesis of Exodus in The Interpreter's Bible, writes that
the commandment is concerned with the protection of human life within the community of Israel, against destruction by fellow Israelites. The verb is not limited to murder in the criminal sense and may be used of unpremeditated killing (Deuteronomy 4:42). It forbids all killing not explicitly authorized. This means that in Israelite society it did not forbid the slaying of animals, capital punishment, or the killing of enemies in war. It had no direct bearing, either, on suicide. (p. 986, Pierce and Smith, USA, 1952)
The reference to Deuteronomy concerns the establishment of safe towns of refuge for accidental "manslayers" - again showing the nebulousness that the verb could be afforded in interpretation and then translation. The topic is a fine example of how personal interpretation must sometimes influence translations - especially if the target language does not share a word that contains the same amount of various meanings. The translator must first make an interpretational choice of which of the original language's meanings it contains, and then must make a choice on how best to represent it in English. Perhaps the problem is limited vocabulary, or even a too-specific vocabulary on our part?
Again turning to Fox and his translation, his assessment of the verb results in his comment that "some interpreters view this as 'killing' in general, while others restrict it, as I have done here" [to 'murder'] (Op. cit.).
Anyways - just some food for thought: 1- It's not "plagiarism", and 2- "Murder" or "Kill" - take your pick.
I would also add that in addition to Exodus 20, the "Decalogue" is also found in Deuteronomy 4-5. It's interesting to compare the two, especially to see how they broaden one another and help to increase comprehension of the Decalogue's intent - whether one thinks they are good guides for humanity or not. As another poster has pointed out, humanity has rarely been able to live up to the decrees. Fox adds that "they served for a time as part of Jewish liturgy, but were ultimately removed from the Prayer Book out of fear that it would be thought that ten rules were the limit of one's obligations to God" (ibid).
Last edited by whoppers; 12-10-2011 at 05:08 PM..
Reason: Oh, typos and stuff. Forgot something, too.
1) "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
2) "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,"
3) "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain;"
4) "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."
The first 4 make it blatently clear that 'he' has some real issues with insecurity, is completely narcissistic with an egotistical obsession, in addition lack of self-confidence.
The first 4 make it blatently clear that 'he' has some real issues with insecurity, is completely narcissistic with an egotistical obsession, in addition lack of self-confidence.
It's actually the same formula used in other covenantal treaties of the time in which a ruler demanded total obedience from his vassal states. Since the biblical authors were consciously modeling their "Covenant" on Ancient Near Eastern Covenants and Vassal Treaties of the time - this isn't surprising at all.
Does it show insecurity? Narcissism? Egotistical obsession? Possibly, if you want to ignore the fact that it's pretty common practice for a ruler to demand absolute loyalty from the country he is entering into the treaty with. Each part of the treaty has certain obligations to the other member of the covenant. There are also strict penalties for a breach of the Covenant. This is also why at the end of Deuteronomy, it lists the curses that will befall those who "break" the Covenantal Treaty - just like in the ANE models it emulated.
Asheville - you're arguing as if God really existed and had a personality....
Why not leave that silliness to the conservatives?
Even if he DID exist, and was jealous of other gods - it makes perfect sense for a god who is writing up an agreement or treaty with a people to demand obedience, just as the Israelites would have expected their god to keep his part of the bargain. If Yahweh didn't want such faithfulness, why bother singling out that people? Again - these arguments are only applicable when approaching the Bible from a literary perspective, not a historical perspective.
The Sabbath law - what has that to do with God's ego? A day of rest for workers? Awesome!
The Sabbath law - what has that to do with God's ego? A day of rest for workers? Awesome!
Obviously, it is not to rest but to spend the day dedicated to stroking his ego.
And the penalty for not resting, but getting in the crops before the rains or the freeze hits, or milking the cows or goats is death.
I'm not arguing for or against god, but merely pointing out the irrational concept of what people believe about some god. I haven't made any of this stuff up, I've just shown a light on it to show it for what it is.
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