Golmer's Blog

#Christians like to claim that the Ten Commandments (supposedly written by God himself on stone tablets on a mountain) are the basis for morality - morality for everyone. Oh sure they include stuff from the bible too, but the 10 C’s are the biggies, right?

Of course the actual Ten Commandments are really an amalgam of commandments from three places in the bible - Two in Exodus and one in Deuteronomy. But those can generally be boiled down to:

1. God is God and you shall have no gods other than god.

2. Don’t make or worship any idols.

3. Don’t take god’s name in vane.

4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

5. Honor your father and mother.

6. Don’t kill (or murder for you revisionists).

7. Don’t cheat on your spouse.

8. Don’t steal.

9. Don’t lie.

10. Don’t covet (desire) what isn’t yours. 

Wow. What to say, other than for a basis of morality for an entire society, that is pretty shitty, and pretty limited in scope.

I mean, 1-4 are religion specific and have nothing to do with actual morality, other than to say if you don’t believe in God you aren’t moral. What a load of shit.

Number 10 is shit as well - don’t desire stuff? Are we telling people what to think now? I can certainly WANT my neighbors shit, but I certainly am not free to actually take it. Why can’t I want it? If nobody desires anything, where is the drive to improve?

Number 5 is okay on its face, but it needs serious qualifiers. What if your parents are complete assholes? What if they drink, smoke meth, beat the kids, burn them with cigarettes, chain them in closets, strangle their pets, make them sleep in shit? According to #5 they still must be honored. Even if they dash the children on rocks. What a shitty commandment. Mommy dearest loves it though.

Let’s see. Number 7. Don’t commit adultery. That’s fine, I can see where that would cause domestic problems. I wouldn’t cheat on my wife - it is an agreement between two people for mutual love and benefit. If your spouse isn’t doing it for you, GET A DIVORCE. A contract is a contract. But that’s me - some people have other arrangements, and some people are just stupid enough to try to cheat on their spouses. But does this one really belong up there with killing and stealing? Hmm. 

Number 6, again sounds like a good thing, even though we have a bit of a disagreement over translation and verbiage. Some say murder, others say kill, but nobody really pays attention to this commandment because it is an inconvenience. It needs clarification no matter what word you use. It should probably read “thou shalt not kill unless thou comest up with a really good reason in thine own head.” I mean there are several circumstances where killing is not only understood as being needed but is necessary. I don’t think we take this one far enough, actually - Whole classes of activity seem to justify killing - child molesters, murderers, rapists, repeat offenders, anyone who makes it to prison more than twice, terrorists, “enemies” etc. The bible condones all kinds of killing. Especially people who are of different faiths. Of course the true intent of the commandment probably means not to kill without justification, but it was never qualified, and the bible really supports practically anything in this realm.

Number 8 and 9 are actually pretty good - don’t steal and don’t lie. Why? Because both of those things disrupt society and tend to piss people off, which generally invokes desires (number 10) to commit number 6. 

So basically, the 10 commandments are a bunch of relatively vague and outdated bullshit. I think if you were to come up with 10 transcendent moral concepts that are portable across all of human kind, you could do a lot better than missing on 7 out of 10. Really. So, let’s give it a try. 

1. Do no intentionally harm anyone else unless you are defending yourself or other living persons from harm.

2. You are allowed to think what you want, believe what you want, and do what you want, as long as that does not intentionally harm any other living person.

3. You do not have the right to tell other people what is right for them, what they should believe, or how they should act if their rights, beliefs or actions do no direct harm to your person. You do not have the right to force your personal beliefs on anyone else.

4. You do not have the right to take anything that does not belong to you or that you are unwilling or unable to obtain legally within whatever society in which you live.

5. If you enter a contract or agreement with another person or entity, honor that contract. If conditions change, sever the contract or agreement and move on. 

6. Follow the laws of whatever society in which you live. If you disagree with the laws of the society in which you live, use the legal mechanisms within that society to change those laws and redress wrongs, or leave.

7. Each person is completely accountable and culpable for decisions they make and actions they perform. Each person should expect to be held accountable according to the laws of whatever society in which they live.

I don’t think I really need to go all the way to ten. The major intent is to do no harm to others, follow the law, and to be accountable for one’s own actions.