The Ten Commandments: Time for an Upgrade to Ten REAL Wellness-Inspired Common Decency Commitments

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trained author Donald Ardell
Preface: Robert green Ingersoll on The Ten Commandments


Some Christian lawyers - some eminent judges - have stated and nonetheless say, that the Ten Commandments are the foundation of all legislation.
Nothing could be extra absurd. Lengthy earlier than these commandments were given there have been codes of laws in India and Egypt - legal guidelines against homicide, perjury, larceny, adultery and fraud. Such legal guidelines are as historical as human society; as historic because the love of existence; as old as enterprise; because the inspiration of prosperity; as old as human love.

The entire Ten Commandments which might be just right had been old; all that were new are silly. If Jehovah had been civilized he would have ignored the commandment about retaining the Sabbath, and in its position would have stated: 'Thou shalt no longer enslave thy fellow-guys... He would have disregarded the one about graven portraits, and in its stead would have mentioned: 'Thou shalt no longer wage wars of extermination, and thou shalt no longer unsheathe the sword except in self-safeguard.'

If Jehovah had been civilized, how much grander the Ten Commandments would were. All that we call development - the enfranchisement of man, of labor, the substitution of imprisonment for loss of life, of great for imprisonment, the destruction of polygamy, the beginning of free speech, of the rights of sense of right and wrong; in brief, all that has tended to the development and civilization of man; the entire outcome of investigation, observation, expertise and free thought; all that man has complete for the advantage of man due to the fact the close of the dark a while - has been achieved regardless of the ancient testament..

~Robert green Ingersoll, What Would You substitute for the Bible as a moral advisor? The Millennium task.

Introductory Overview

the 10 commandments strike me as archaic, unhelpful and sick-geared up to the 20th century, let alone the twenty first. Nonetheless relentlessly promoted through the religious proper, a modicum of purpose scrutiny suggests it is time for a new and increased adaptation. If I were pope, head of a Protestant sect or a televangelist, i would lead the way for primary changes. I would upgrade from ten bad, normal and bossy shalt nots to a set of positive, distinctive and invaluable usual decencies. The decencies could be commitments from within, now not commandments from without.

When you consider that i'm a little aged and typically no longer in line for a management position in any religion, i would higher now not wait too long. Or, delay at all. I'm going to do it correct now, here at Ezine.

Monuments and devout Freedom

Many devout folks get particularly irate when articles of their religion are puzzled or when secularists object to intrusions of faith on public lifestyles. Bear in mind, for example, the hindrance in Oklahoma involving the placement of a 10 commandments monument, by a religious staff with the endorsement of state officers, on state capital grounds. This show resulted in protests and authorized challenges, which culminated on June 30, 2015 in a ruling via the Oklahoma Supreme court directing elimination of the monument. The court held that its location violated a provision within the state's structure that no public money or property can be utilized either instantly or indirectly for the improvement, or help of any sect, church, denomination or method of faith. As issues the ancient intent claims by the defendants, the court observed the 10 commandments to be surely religious in nature and an integral part of the Jewish and Christian faiths.

The governor of Oklahoma immediately declared her intent to defy the order. Now not long ago, Alabama's Supreme courtroom Chief Justice Roy Moore used to be ordered to do the same by means of a federal courtroom, refused and used to be removed from office. The monument was once then removed from the state capitol steps the place Moore, within the center of the night time, had directed the monument's placement. (The same Roy Moore, re-elected to his historical job, is presently defying the U.S. Supreme court docket's by means of encouraging county clerks in Alabama not to furnish marriage licenses to equal-sex couples, in defiance of the court's ruling granting equal rights to same intercourse couples.) Most not too long ago, a decalogue on public property in entrance of a high school in New Kensington, Pennsylvania was ruled legal just days in the past by means of federal judge seeing that, and i am not making this up, the plaintiffs might not prove that they were sufficiently offended by way of it.

Challenges to decalogues or different religious monuments reminiscent of Jesus statues on government property are the lifeblood of religious correct firms, leaders and commentators, specifically countrywide media outlets like the reasonable and balanced Fox news community. The latter were fast to declare that the Oklahoma court docket decision was an assault on devout freedom. Identical protests have been heard when religious shopkeepers realize that there are limits on their rights to disclaim service situated on religion claims. Additionally, many Christians are flummoxed when secularists project tax exemption of church property, the granting of public dollars for chaplains and the inclusion of a god reference in our forex and Pledge of Allegiance. Christian politicians who insist on prayers at govt conferences and public schools think victimized by way of secular objections to such practices.

History Or Evangelism?

Within the Oklahoma case and elsewhere, religionists claim that their icons, comparable to the ten Commandments, are historical, not religious. Such claims make one wonder: Do these making such statements comprehend the character of the ten Commandments? Polls have shown that almost all persons asked to name the commandments can not do not forget greater than a pair, more commonly the ones forbidding stealing, murdering and coveting. Yet, Christians assert that each one these historical rules are the foundation elements of our modern laws and the U.S. Constitution.

For this reason, It seems time for yet another look on the 10 Commandments. In the 1940's, I had to memorize these ideas. Let me inform you about my early experiences in this regard.

My Early Years

I used to be raised in Southwest Philadelphia in an Irish-Catholic regional. Anyone little Catholic devils soon discovered that we faced ghastly retribution within the afterlife if we died with a mortal sin on our souls. Mortal sins had been (and probably still are) the Catholic an identical of capital crimes, although most are punishable most effective within the subsequent lifestyles. Making ready for that life even as trying to do the proper Catholic matters on this one is the point of interest of being Catholic. Each believer discovers quickly sufficient that he desires to head to heaven; no Catholic who takes the faith severely wishes to become within the substitute vacation spot.

We Catholic kids at St. Barnabas discovered that breaking a commandment was a mortal sin. We also learned that we needed to get mortal sins off our chests (souls, absolutely) before perishing - die with one on your soul and you're hell-sure. Period. No appeals, no clemency, no pardon - simplest everlasting doom! The nuns made it their trade to remind us on a near-daily groundwork how principal it used to be to avert committing or, extra nearly, having these dreadful religious crimes forgiven, at the same time alive, by way of the confessional field. Or else, we might spend eternity in hell. Sister deChantel forecast a excessive chance that this was once exactly where I used to be headed, unless I reformed my methods. She seldom resisted including this zinger: and also you won't like that one bit, young man, i will let you know that.

As youngsters, we of path believed the whole lot the nuns and different adults led us to consider - about angels, devils, Santa Claus, the teeth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, goblins - all of it. If i might been brought up in historical Greece I would have believed in Greek gods, however there i might have recognized they weren't actual. No longer so with the god described with the aid of his agents at St. Barnabas. In the forty's and 50's, the Inquisition could have been over, but the nuns had now not gotten word. Amongst my neighbors, non-conformity to devout norms, rituals, beliefs or traditions was now not an choice. In my local, no one liked a smart man. We went together with what we were advised. And but, we failed to think about god very so much, no longer even when marched into church on Sundays or in the course of faith courses in the course of the week. Church services and religion courses have been instances for fantasies, daydreams or planning enjoyable things when church or college let out.

In my case, as soon as a modicum of mind progress and unbiased pondering got here into play, ingredients of the religion have been questioned, doubted and eventually challenged, tentatively to start with. Soon ample, I determined things could no longer be rather as represented. I gave it all up for Lent - and in no way began up again. That was once almost 70 years in the past.

Regardless of the fearsome penalties of an afterlife writhing in the fires of hell, commandments were damaged. However, no worries, for confession was once a easily to be had Catholic guilt decision mechanism. After violating a commandment, all you had to do was inform a priest about it on a Saturday afternoon in a confessional field. All would then be forgiven and you could possibly have a clean soul slate. There used to be a small fee to pay, a punishment designed to encourage us little sinners to not transgress once more. That was once penance, which normally consisted of being assigned x quantity of prayers, relying on the number and sort allotted through the priest confessor. That was it. Once the prayer sentence was once recited, all used to be forgiven, hell now not loomed and that i was seemingly heaven-certain (although I might must suffer 1/3 measure burns in Purgatory for an indeterminate spell). The challenge used to be it appeared inconceivable not to screw up over and over, given the character and interpretation of the commandment prohibitions. This uncertainty, combined with my curious and quite rebellious nature, ended in weekly offenses. As mentioned, the important thing to staying out of hell was once no longer dying before seeing a parish priest or any priest, but ideally Father Doyle, who every person knew doled out the least punishment (i.E., three Hail Mary's). Then I was sin-free to go on about my industry, which soon sufficient included falling off the hell-proof wagon.

So, that's a short overview of my early experience with faith frequently and 10 commandments in specific.

The ten Commandments

Let's put apart the truth that exhibiting of 10 commandments on executive property violates an centered lifestyle of separating church and state. A further intent not to do this is because they're non-practical and disagreeable. They're medieval proscriptions; they're relatively without difficulty vain often and self-evident in others. They don't work as courses to morality on the disorders of our time. To secularists, the ten commandments are nothing if no longer weird.

Remember every of the next ten from the point of view of a secular citizen - and a few 1/3 of american citizens are secular. (The variant noted is discovered in Exodus 20:2-17.)


i am the lord your god, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the condo of bondage. You shall don't have any other gods earlier than me.
What? Who are you once more? No longer my lord, not my god. I do not consider in a lord, or a god. Egypt? What's that received to do with me? No concerns about different gods before anybody. They are all make feel.

Even as a small youngster, this didn't practice. I had no clues about other gods. If I heard of one, it can be unlikely i'd have violated this commandment. I used to be resulted in feel that this god used to be all-powerful, all-realizing, all this and all the whole lot. Why retailer around should you believed that, which earlier than age ten or so I definitely did. Maintaining this commandment was not ever a drawback. Apart from, I wasn't brought out of Egypt through anybody, nor used to be I aware of any individual in my family being held in bondage.

2. You shall not make for your self a carved photograph - any likeness of some thing that's in heaven above, or that's within the earth below, or that's within the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the lord your god, am a jealous god, touring the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the 1/3 and fourth generations of individuals who hate me, however displaying mercy to 1000's, to those who love me and maintain my commandments.

As an adult freethinker, this comes throughout as crazy speak. As a small baby, it was once complicated, and easily put out of intellect. Even then it made little feel, as there have been graphics, which seemed kind of carved, in every single place the location. The church itself was loaded with them, as have been our school rooms. There used to be one in my bed room and the dashboard of our car. Monks and nuns carried them round in processions and in the course of assemblies. I didn't get it, so I failed to believe about it. As with the primary commandment, this was under no circumstances recounted in confession, for there used to be nothing to tempt a violation. I did wonder why a god that was so tremendous would brag about or proclaim himself a jealous god. What did he need to be jealous about? And what about that risk to harm my youngsters and grandchildren and even first-class grandchildren if I were dangerous.

That did not appear very excellent.

3. You shall no longer take the title of the lord your god in useless, for the lord will not preserve him guiltless who takes his identify in vain.

Being lord-free as an adult, this is senseless, however it was an issue in my early years.

I used to be not sure what the in useless phrase intended, but i assumed that it used to be not a excellent concept to say things like Goddammit or Jesus or plenty of other phrases that bought a upward push out of grownups. I heard many such phrases, though. I used to be amazed that the traces of sinners ready for confessional bins weren't loads longer on Saturday afternoons.

I also notion, then and now, that commandments two and three were similar, often the equal factor.

4. Remember the sabbath day, to hold it holy. Six days you shall labor and do your whole work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord your god. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who's within your gates. For in six days the lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. As a consequence the lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.

Oh boy, as an grownup I must wonder, Who would put up with this sort of bossiness? Why would anyone need to show any such announcement wherever, let alone a public place?

We had to go to Mass on Sunday - that seemed to satisfy this commandment. We could do what we liked the rest of the time without unhallowing the day, though a number of outlets have been closed. I didn't mind that so much and was once no longer suffering from the main points of commandment quantity 4. We owned no cattle (I lived in a row condo in a tremendous city), had no servants and i was once too young to have a son or daughter. We had no strangers within our gates. We failed to even have gates. And if they say God did all that in six days, good, he absolutely appeared entitled to a time without work, definitely of that. But even then I failed to peer what any of it needed to do with me.

I'm reminded of FFRF founder Anne Nicol Gaylor's What's unsuitable With the Ten Commandments? An excerpt:

In essence, the first 4 commandments all scream that 'the lord thy god' has an uneasy self-importance, and like most dictators, must lodge to threats, as an alternative than mental persuasion, to promote a point of view. If there have been an all-powerful god, are you able to imagine him or her being worried if some terrible little insignificant creature puttered round and made a graven image? Do you consider that any god, possessing the modicum of excellent will you could anticipate to seek out in any neighbor, would want to punish kids even 'unto the 1/3 and fourth generation' considering their fathers would not bow down? How can someone no longer understand the pettiness, bluster, bombast and psychotic insecurity in the back of the primary 4 commandments? We are presupposed to recognize this!

5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the lord your god is providing you with.

I am in favor of being respectful to all, appreciating sacrifices, treats, love and all the rest of a optimistic nature. Kindness can be worthwhile despite the fact that it didn't lengthen the day or whatever that segment attributed to honoring moms and dads was about. I used to marvel about the forms that honor used to be alleged to take, and whether there have been exceptions for fathers and moms (no longer mine, of path) who did terrible matters. Did they still ought to be honored?

Sure, i tried to honor, not to mention obey, my mother and father. Nonetheless, this used to be almost always the "mortal sin" i would mention in confession. I wanted fabric, so quantity 5 became my bread and butter, go-to sin that i might confess to breaking a number of occasions a week. But, I was guessing if now not inventing knowledge - it could were more or fewer transgressions, depending on what counted and what failed to.

6. You shall not murder.

In my close to 70 years as a non-Catholic, i didn't murder any individual. Honest. In no way even tempted. I was once pretty good with no god, and most likely would have been no better if I had been trying to practice these weirdo commandments. In spite of everything, i would not need any person to kill me, so that is just a self-interest factor, additionally to a main decency. Who quite desires to be commanded not to kill? I ponder: Did this commandment ever deter a homicidal maniac? I imply, believe about it - a murderous mate could get rid of his partner, go to confession (monks cannot rat a sinner out to authorities) and, three Hail Mary's later, be in excellent standing with god and heaven-certain.

7. You shall now not commit adultery.

Good, that's unattainable. Apart from, what, precisely is adultery? Wouldn't you consider cultural norms at the time when two stone drugs are alleged to were given by using God to Moses supposed for the Israelites within the basic vicinity of Mount Sinai could have been rather exclusive from norms in these days? Even norms in these days are dramatically special throughout the globe (e.G., average is a bit of unique in San Francisco and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia or Tehran, Iran).

8. You shall not steal.

A excellent proposal, however there were colorations of gray, as a youngster and ever since. Was it stealing to sneak treats before dinner? I suppose it was, come to consider about it. In any occasion, this admonition used to be not so much of a predicament. I had what I needed and wanted, for probably the most phase - it is consistently simpler to be virtuous when no longer determined.

9. You shall not endure false witness in opposition to your neighbor.

No obstacle.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor's condo; you shall no longer covet your neighbor's spouse, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor something that's your neighbor's.

Check. Our condo was concerning the same as every body else's, and the females in the neighborhood had been approach too adult and traditionally instead cranky. I had no notion why any person would covet any of them. As already recounted, neither our loved ones nor someone I knew had servants, male or feminine, let alone an ox or a donkey.

Doubt and Skepticism briefly supply

Adults raised without religion and others who, for diverse explanations, got here to impeach and ultimately reject their childhood indoctrinations more commonly view the 10 commandments as antediluvian bromides, vain as a moral consultant or code of behavior.

Absolutely the list of shall and shalt nots are self-evident to any one with an ounce of excellent sense. The principles or admonitions are infrequently practical. The secularist isn't probably to elevate false gods when he holds none to be actual. How can believers be constructive they've chosen or, extra possible, been taught to adore the true god? Who needs a faith to grasp that it can be now not alright to steal or, for God's sake (simply an expression!), homicide men and women? All civilized societies forbid such crimes and punish (on this life) people who violate human rights. And why forbid coveting when it's actions that subject? Why the colossal deal about your neighbor's spouse, which almost implies that different varieties of coveting probably just dandy? Where would the advertising career be if we did not covet stuff? Might there be a free enterprise economy?

Thousands of persons were resulted in suppose in deity-dictated commandments. Millions additionally believe devout leaders who proclaim that the commandments influenced the U.S. Structure, were the basis of Western laws and even morality, that they preserve our liberties, comfy our civilization and constitute revelations from the knowledge and love of God to the guts and brain of man. Millions go along with faith leaders who say they have got to be revered, obeyed and proclaimed. In brief, hundreds of thousands of individuals stay respectful of those antiquated dictates. What are they thinking?

Perhaps rather of ignoring the ten commandments, secularists should remind believers what the commandments are all about, and motivate discussions about every one and word all manner of matters no longer mentioned at all that might be excellent to discourage and, more main, motivate. How lengthy might these follies stand as much as a little objective scrutiny before the faithful understand that erecting monuments that promote them in public locations might now not be one of these excellent notion?

The Ten Commitments

to higher respect my proposed "10 commitments, do not forget the next standpoint from the speech cited at the beginning of this essay by way of 19th century orator extraordinaire Robert inexperienced Ingersoll (What Would You replacement for the Bible as a moral guide?):

We can not depend on what are referred to as 'inspired books,' or the religions of the arena. These religions are based on the supernatural, and according to them we are beneath duty to worship and obey some supernatural being, or beings. All these religions are inconsistent with mental liberty. They are the enemies of notion, of investigation, of mental honesty. They damage the manliness of man. They promise everlasting rewards for belief, for credulity, for what they call religion.

These religions instruct the slave virtues. They make inanimate matters holy, and falsehoods sacred. They invent synthetic crimes. To eat meat on Friday, to experience yourself on Sunday, to consume on quick-days, to be completely happy in Lent, to dispute a priest, to ask for evidence, to deny a creed, to specific your honest suggestion, all these acts are sins, crimes against some god, to present your honest opinion about Jehovah, Mohammed or Christ, is a ways worse than to maliciously slander your neighbor. To impeach or doubt miracles. Is far worse than to deny recognized facts. Best the obedient, the credulous, the cringers, the kneelers, the meek, the unquestioning, the genuine believers, are viewed as moral, as virtuous. It is not ample to be honest, beneficiant and valuable; not sufficient to be governed by means of proof, by way of details. Moreover to this, you have to think. These things are the foes of morality. They subvert all usual conceptions of advantage.

All 'stimulated books,' teaching that what the supernatural commands is right, and proper due to the fact commanded, and that what the supernatural prohibits is incorrect, and flawed considering the fact that prohibited, are absurdly unphilosophic.

And all 'influenced books,' instructing that simplest individuals who obey the commands of the supernatural are, or will also be, truly virtuous, and that unquestioning religion will be rewarded with eternal pleasure, are grossly immoral.

Once more I say: Intelligence is the one ethical consultant.

I've reviewed the character of controversies surrounding the location of religious icons in public locations, summarized my early experience with faith and assessed the 10 commandments. Now, at final, I hereby unveil a promised set of up-to-date moral publications higher applicable to ultra-modern occasions than the historical Decalogue.

Ample of the overly bad, indistinct and bossy shalt not 10 commandments. My endorsed 10 normal decency commitments offer requisites of conduct more personally honorable and socially precious than the proscriptions found within the 10 commandments. The most important differences are that the normal decency commitments are confident, specified and addressed to considerations critical to excellent order in twenty first century society.

Be mindful and respectful of nature, the atmosphere and different existence forms. At the same time nourishing a sense of awe concerning the cosmos and the wonder and brevity of your existence.
Cultivate your mind: Be familiar with the mighty ideas that genius has expressed, the noble deeds of all of the world. (Robert inexperienced Ingersoll)
Be a shrewd steward in caring for and enhancing the fine of your corporeal being - nourish it well while cultivating a excessive degree of bodily health.
Be impartial and of carrier to others.
Be fair, honest, sort and sincere.
Include accountability for previous and gift outcomes and future prospects.
Apply primary thinking - appreciate the validated details of science and the genuine historical past and nature of the arena.
Promote peace and justice at every opportunity, in approaches large and small.
Embrace the usual decencies.
The latter invite rather more explication that the rest. The list of such virtues might be particularly broad; however, point out of some must bring the elemental strategies. Some of these overlap with the ten famous above - they're foremost adequate to repeat.

10. Original decencies include private integrity (telling the truth, no longer mendacity or being deceitful), sincerity (e.G., candid, frank and freed from hypocrisy), preserving guarantees (honoring pledges and agreements) and acting honorably (eschewing fraud and skullduggery). Different features deserving a situation in your commitments to decency are trustworthiness, loyalty, dependability, reliability and acceptance of accountability.

Add benevolence, equity, gratitude, appreciate for justice and equality, tolerance and a willingness to barter variations and you've got a list enough for a valuable upgrade from the medieval 10 commandments.