Analysis of the Ten Commandments

In this post, I'm going to be looking at the ten commandments, and seeing whether or not they hold up when looked at critically. It's important to know if they would work in all situations, and if they should be part of the law, because there are some people who want the rule of law to be based on them.

1. You shall have no other Gods before me.

Already, we are seeing that the commandments should not be what determines the law. If we include this in the law, it will mean throwing freedom of religion out the window, and having it so everyone has to follow this religion.

2. You shall make no idols.

Again, there is the issue of freedom of religion. So this is another example of why the commandments should not determine the law.

The above commandments are actually seen fairly reasonable for Christians to follow. If there is really only one God, you shouldn't go making idols of worshipping other Gods. That's just something normal to follow, however if you take a look into the Bible, it goes more in depth about this subject:

"2 If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the Lord gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God in violation of his covenant, 3 and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars in the sky,4 and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, 5 take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death. 6"

If you show this to a Christian, they will usually just say that since it's the old testamate, it doesn't apply anymore. Jesus disagrees:

17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." - Jesus in Matthew 5:17-20

I

This sounds suspiciously like Jesus is defending the Old Testament. Hmm.

3. You shall not take the name of the lord in vein.

Again, reasonable within the religion, but should have no place in the law.

4. Keep the sabbath day holy.

This seems reasonable on it's face, but it's described in more detail here:

"Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the lord. Whoever does any work on it, shall be put to death." - Exodus 35:2

Oh how nice. That's a lot of people we need to kill. The thing about these verses is that Christians and Jews would freak out if they saw this in the Quran. They would bring it up as an example of how evil the God of Islam is, and how that God is a monster, so it should not be worshipped, and they would be 100% right.

5. Honor your mother and father.

I think the issues with this one are fairly obvious. Obviously someone like Stalin or Hitler should not be honored by their children, but this commandment said that they should. The Bible gives more parenting advice here:

"For God commanded, 'honor your mother and your father' and 'whoever reviles father or mother must surely die'" - Matthew 15:4

Notice how this is in the New Testament, so the good ole "that doesn't apply now" doesn't work.

6. You shall not murder.

There are some translations that say "you shall not kill", which would mean not even in situations when lives are at risk, but there really isn't an issue with this one if murder is specified. This is probably the only commandment that should apply to the laws in society. However, if you take a look in the Bible, you see some examples of God murdering people.

An easy example of this is when God drowned almost everything living, as described in Genesis chapeters 6-10. Yay for love!

While some people consider the flood story to be allegorical (allegorical for WHAT? Allegorical for showing God is not above murdering people?) there are still many examples in the Bible of God killing people. For a list you can see here: http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com/2010/04/drunk-with-blood-gods-killings-in-bible.html?m=1

7. You shall not commit adultery.

Like most of the other commandments, this is not something that should determine the law. The 

Bible elaborates on what it means by "adultery" here:

"But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already commuted adultery with her in his heart." - Matthew 5:28

This could seem fairly reasonable to a Christian, I disagree. Some people naturally have more hormones than other people, this could lead to people being more horny or "lustful", and hormones are not willed on to someone by wanting it, its genetic. We've already seen countries try to make it so men wouldn't get horny by seeing women, yet those countries are hated by Christians because they don't give people human rights. Obviously I'm talking about Muslim countries in the Middle East. What I'm saying, is that we're going to be just like countries with Sharia law if we determine our laws based on the Ten Commandments.

8. You shall not steal.

This is one of the commandments where it seems reasonable, but there are cases when it shouldn't apply. For example, imagine if a guy had a baby who was starving and about to die (the details are irrelevant) and he saw a guy left some food on a table, would he have the right to take it to save the baby'a life? I'm sure you can think of some other examples where it would be right to steal. 

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbo

1935, Germany

"No officer, my neighbor is not hiding Jews in his house, hail Hitler."

10. You shall not covet.

Again, this is something that seems reasonable, but should should not determine what the law is. If what is considered illegal goes so far as to control your thoughts, then there will be a real, obvious problem. But let's get a better look at this. 

You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor." - Exodus 20:17, the full tenth commandment.

Seems kinda sexist, right?

Final notes

After looking at these commandments, it's bewildering that people would want them to make up the laws that guide how we are supposed to live. Christians also claim that, in our heart, we atheists truly know that these commandments are true, but do we? These commandments should not be placed on national property, because the first three are anti-freedom of religion. The constitution states that the government cannot establish a religion, but the commandments clearly disagree. 

It's perfectly reasonable for a Christian to live thier lives using these commandments, however, that does not change the fact that there are places where they shouldn't apply, as I described above.

Also, why did they have such useless things in the commandments. They spent three talking about how God is the only one to worship, and the last one was just saying "don't be jealous". Why didn't God put more useful things? Such as "you shall not rape". 

Lastly, I have a question to the people who say these apply, even though they're in the Old Testament: Why do these apply, yet the other verses in the Old Testament that I showed above don't count? It seems fairly inconsistent.