 |
| Source |
The first three are all to stroke God's humongous ego, the fourth tells us not to work on Sunday which millions of people break every week, the next three seem fairly reasonable, and essentially EVERY OTHER religion has them as rules too, and the last one flies in the very face of what it is to an American.
I tell you after reading the Ten Commandments as a kid I realized right away that only a douchebag would ask human beings to follow those rules.
I think it was the ten commandments that first started me doubting. I looked at the one that says "Thou shalt not kill" and I just knew something was wrong. I finally realized what.
ReplyDeleteNo society - especially back then! - could survive without a way of defending itself, which meant an army. And the only way an army can enforce the right of their society to exist was to kill if needed.
I was told that it should actually read "murder" instead of "kill" and my immediate question was "Then why doesn't it SAY that?" I got smacked.
Great way to teach. Knocked the faith right out of me.
Great list, Gryphen. Is there one missing?
ReplyDelete"Thou shall not stuff a pillow up one's shirt and pretend to be pregnant."
Yeah, I wish I could go back to the first couple grades of Catholic schooling when I was drilled in the answers and the questions, but with none of my own, what with my malleable, trusting, pre-age of reason mind.
ReplyDeleteSomething Lincoln referenced during the Civil War, "Can even God be both for and against the same thing at the same time?" Answer that one for me Sister Terror. "Yes? Well, then, how come when human beings do it we're called schizophrenic?" Money was part of the choice too, but I'm grateful to this day the folks moved me to public after 6th before Catholic schooling could fuck my head over on matters sexual.
Dogmatic atheism aside, the Commandments (which were composed by and for an ancient culture), when brought into the syntax and sociology of 21st century life, still serve as a good guideline for conducting MOST of one's life. Put them with the Bill of Rights and you have a good pair of rules. Certainly not all are applicable to us, but follow those that are and society and the world would be a better place (and I include the resting on Sunday--maybe we would be better spending time with our families, etc., rather than watching over-paid athletes bash each other in various competitions, shopping etc. For example ,my father likes to point out that if businesses followed the Commandments we would not need unions. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteExcept for the "god" crap, the ten commandments are good guidelines for civilization - provided they are translated properly.
DeleteBe glad that you live in this country Gryphen, it's pretty bad around the world for atheists:
ReplyDeleteAtheists Face Death Penalty In 13 Countries, Discrimination Around The World According To Freethought Report
In 13 countries around the world, all of them Muslim, people who openly espouse atheism or reject the official state religion of Islam face execution under the law, according to a detailed study issued on Tuesday.
And beyond the Islamic nations, even some of the West's apparently most democratic governments at best discriminate against citizens who have no belief in a god and at worst can jail them for offenses dubbed blasphemy, it said.
The study, The Freethought Report 2013, was issued by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), a global body uniting atheists, agnostics and other religious skeptics, to mark United Nations' Human Rights Day on Tuesday.
"This report shows that the overwhelming majority of countries fail to respect the rights of atheists and freethinkers although they have signed U.N agreements to treat all citizens equally," said IHEU President Sonja Eggerickx.
The study covered all 192 member states in the world body and involved lawyers and human rights experts looking at statute books, court records and media accounts to establish the global situation.
A first survey of 60 countries last year showed just seven where death, often by public beheading, is the punishment for either blasphemy or apostasy - renouncing belief or switching to another religion which is also protected under U.N. accords.
But this year's more comprehensive study showed six more, bringing the full list to Afghanistan, Iran, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
In others, like India in a recent case involving a leading critic of religion, humanists say police are often reluctant or unwilling to investigate murders of atheists carried out by religious fundamentalists.
Across the world, the report said, "there are laws that deny atheists' right to exist, revoke their citizenship, restrict their right to marry, obstruct their access to public education, prevent them working for the state...."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/10/atheists-death-penalty-_n_4417994.html
I like this version much better than "the original". All I learned in Catholic school was to repeat the answers in the Baltimore Catechism and Bible by rote. Tell them what they want to hear and you won't get hit with a belt, pointer, ruler, or rosary beads.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Commandment 10, bandwagon fallacy, is often used by the anti (science) gmo crowd.
ReplyDeleteRemember that Thomas Jefferson chose for his gravestone to cite that he was a founder of the University of Virginia... not that he was POTUS.
ReplyDeleteIt's laughable to imagine that $arah actually graduated from any college (not that she's proved that she did), much less that she made any contribution to our nation's educational system in any way.