The Ten Commandments For Atheists Too.

[Theland]

https://youtu.be/TK57RiMqTdk
Dennis Prager claims the Ten Commandments are necessary as the basis for moral authority.
I agree with him.
Do you?

[Theland]

I just don't see the authority being told how to live my life. I continue to steal.

[jackthehat]

Perhaps you'll find answers more to your liking here....?

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Society-and-Culture/Religion-and-Spirituality/Question327153.html

[cassa333]

Continue to steal and you will continue to be detained at her majesty’s please use again and again.

You might like something even though society tells you it is wrong. If you continue to Steal because you like it then that is perhaps a fetish and you might be helped with the fetish or spend time at her majesty’s pleasure. Continue to do something because you do not acknowledge the authority of the law then you will again spend time at her majesty’s pleasure.

If you don’t learn you will be in and out of prison or such like or end up shot or stabbed by one of your victims.

[birdie1971]

Does it need to be pointed out that people do not and never truly have got their moral compass from biblical texts? The authors of the biblical texts simply codified the accepted morality norms of their day. They already believed them to be the basis for living a 'good' life before they were written down. Indeed, it is precisely because they considered them to be the basis of morality that they wrote them down at all. Of course, some people will argue that Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying stone tablets that were inscribed by the very hand of God himself but then some people will believe any old codswallop if it is presented to them in ancient sounding scripture.

That's why there's no specific injunction on committing sexual offences in the Commandments. What we consider to be sexual offences today, they did not consider them offences at the time or didn't consider them to be suitably serious enough to warrant a mention.

That's why there's no specific injunction against slavery in the Commandments. We in the West now consider slavery to be one of the worst human rights violations imaginable. However, people back then didn't share our modern sensibilites. Hence no mention.

That's why there's no specific injunction against child abuse in the Commandments. Children in that day were the possessions of their parents or guardians. Children had no rights; ergo they were not worthy of a mention.

I could go on at length about what is not mentioned in the Commandments. I'm sure many others could too. But to those people who honestly believe that scriptural texts – be they Biblical, Islamic, Jewish, Hindu, etc. – are the foundations of their own morality, ask yourselves this:

Hypothetically, if it could be proven that God does not exist and never did, would you resort to murder or rape? If you realised and truely believed that your actions had no consequences for you after your death – no Heaven and no Hell – what would stop you from becoming a sociopath? And if you conclude that you would not become an anti-social, violent, malfeasant then to what do you attribute that?

[beso]

^ Excellent post birdie.

[woofgang]

So Theland....do you comply with the Big 10 and if not why not? I mean you say you believe in God and yet you also say you steal.

[RATTER15]

[birdie1971]

Hi Ratter,

Thanks for that video link. It's very much appreciated by me – one of the world's biggest Christopher Hitchens fans. His grasp of the English language and his unerring adherence to logic, reasoning and rationality made him my hero many years ago.

His premature demise saddened me in a profound way. I have never before or since felt that kind loss for someone I did not know personally. In my humble opinion, his death was and still is a tremendous loss to those of us who value logic over feelings and truth over superstitious beliefs.

[naomi24]

^I agree.

[10ClarionSt]

Number one. Thou shalt play golf at least once per week.
Number two. Keep taking the tablets. (I know, I know)
Number three. If in doubt, refer number one.

[10ClarionSt]

^^refer to number one^^

[Theland]

The Hitchens video - He misses the mark. He knows he is clever, and his cleverness verges on arrogance.
He talks in ever decreasing circles before disappearing up his own rase. In my opinion.

[nailit]

Theland, why don't you post the Biblical penalties for breaking most of the so called 10 commandments as well.
(Clue...its death)

[nailit]

Or perhaps you havnt read them bits as by your own admission, you havnt read the Bible?

[Theland]

Nailit- I study the Bible in depth. Bits of it at a time. I am looking at Tnesolonians 2 and 3.
Should I be like you and race from cover to cover and say, " Ah done that give me the tee shirt?"
Your comments are shallow.s

[kvalidir]

So you don't yet know that the penalty for breaking the 10 commandments is usually death then Theland yet presume to tell us how foolish and uneducated we are?

[nailit]

//Should I be like you and race from cover to cover and say, " Ah done that give me the tee shirt?"//

No you certainly should not, and neither did I.

[nailit]

//Theland yet presume to tell us how foolish and uneducated we are? //
None so blind etc....

[jackthehat]

Have you been a Christian for as long as you have been on AnswerBank, Theland?

Because I'd have thought 12 years was plenty of time for someone to have read through the bible, at least once...

[nailit]

//Your comments are shallow.s//
And yours are presumptious Theland.
I spent Years studying the Bible (all of it, not just bits)