# 10 Commandments **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 4, 2012, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736 "2012-02-04T05:19:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/41 "2012-02-04T06:39:57Z")
> [@Max\_the\_Immortal](#): > > What’s an idol? Justin Bieber? ---
**Author:** ![Granny\_Rainbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Granny\_Rainbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Granny_Rainbow)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/42 "2012-02-04T06:41:13Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > I’m not quite sure how you propose I do that. I had a quick look at the text of the ten commandments (both versions, copied right there in Wikipedia) before I posted. I’ll admit that my summation was a bit more succint than the Word’s, but the text is quite clear. You need to read the Bible, rather than Wiki. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/43 "2012-02-04T06:42:58Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > No. For one thing, they are Christian rules and following them implies an acceptance of Christianity The Jews might want to have a word with you about that maybe. > [@Granny\_Rainbow](#): > > You need to read the Bible, rather than Wiki. Which translation of the Bible? What commentaries? There are more than a few. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/44 "2012-02-04T06:44:19Z")
The problem here is that everybody is not going to follow any common code. And if they did, the world would not be a better place. It would be a dull, drab world. It is the way that ants live. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/45 "2012-02-04T06:44:28Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > No, it is very much a Christian issue, since you are speaking of several rules that are specifically Christian. That in fact demand adherence to Christianity. This is how I’m reading this as well. This seems like nothing more than a bible-thumping all dressed up as an intellectual argument/discussion. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Granny\_Rainbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Granny\_Rainbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Granny_Rainbow)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/46 "2012-02-04T06:44:30Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > If this is about human behavior and not religion then who decides on the basic set of rules to be followed by all of humanity? I never said anything about where the rules came from or who sent them. Why are you so set against whoever sets rules? We have a CREATOR and HE should set the rules for our behaviour! ---
**Author:** ![Granny\_Rainbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Granny\_Rainbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Granny_Rainbow)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/47 "2012-02-04T06:45:42Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > This is how I’m reading this as well. This seems like nothing more than a bible-thumping all dressed up as an intellectual argument/discussion. :dubious: I never once mentioned the Bible or any religion! ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/48 "2012-02-04T06:47:20Z")
> [@Granny\_Rainbow](#): > > I never said anything about where the rules came from or who sent them. Why are you so set against whoever sets rules? We have a CREATOR and HE should set the rules for our behaviour! Ahhhh, I see. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/49 "2012-02-04T06:47:27Z")
> [@Granny\_Rainbow](#): > > Der Tris…this is not about religion or christian values…its merely a question about human behaviour. Actually, it IS a question or topic about religion or Jewish (the 10 commandments are Jewish, and many Christians believe that Christians are not obligated to follow Mosaic law) values. Some of them are good. Thou shalt not steal…I’m right behind that one. If people didn’t steal, yeah, the world would be a better place. However, the commandments about no graven images and not worshiping other gods ONLY apply to the believers of Abraham’s god. And those commandments are detrimental to society as a whole, because not everyone is a believer in Abraham’s god, or in any god. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/50 "2012-02-04T06:47:46Z")
If you “never once mentioned the Bible or any religion” where did you think the ten commandments came from? ---
**Author:** ![Granny\_Rainbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Granny\_Rainbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Granny_Rainbow)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/51 "2012-02-04T06:48:33Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > The problem here is that everybody is not going to follow any common code. And if they did, the world would not be a better place. It would be a dull, drab world. It is the way that ants live. There is an intelligent response. You all need to use your BRAINS!!! Like the guy said: It is the way ants live. You have superior intelligence! Use it! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/52 "2012-02-04T06:49:34Z")
> [@Granny\_Rainbow](#): > > I never once mentioned the Bible or any religion! The 10 Commandments are in the Bible, which is a part of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and newer religions derived from them. You’ve mentioned God a couple of times. You didn’t mention a specific denomination and people are giving you a little bit of a hard time, but it does sound like you’re proposing following the 10 Commandments from a religious (or theistic) perspective, not just because they’re good rules. > [@Granny\_Rainbow](#): > > We have a CREATOR and HE should set the rules for our behaviour! Uh, no, we don’t, and no, he doesn’t. At least not from the atheist perspective, which is where I and several other posters in this thread are coming from. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/53 "2012-02-04T06:51:07Z")
> [@Granny\_Rainbow](#): > > Why are you so set against whoever sets rules? We have a CREATOR and HE should set the rules for our behaviour! We _don’t_ have a creator going by all the evidence, and if we do he can go stuff himself into a black hole as far as I’m concerned; we owe it nothing. Any creator that made us did a terrible job and abandoned us to claw ourselves out of the mud by our own efforts and despite our limitations & design flaws. If we have a creator, by all appearances we are by far its moral superior; we certainly shouldn’t be looking to it for moral advice. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/54 "2012-02-04T06:51:27Z")
> [@Granny\_Rainbow](#): > > I never once mentioned the Bible or any religion! Indeed. That is why I said it was _all dressed-up_ as an intellectual argument. ---
**Author:** ![Granny\_Rainbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Granny\_Rainbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Granny_Rainbow)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/55 "2012-02-04T06:51:41Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > Actually, it IS a question or topic about religion or Jewish (the 10 commandments are Jewish, and many Christians believe that Christians are not obligated to follow Mosaic law) values. > > Some of them are good. Thou shalt not steal…I’m right behind that one. If people didn’t steal, yeah, the world would be a better place. However, the commandments about no graven images and not worshiping other gods ONLY apply to the believers of Abraham’s god. And those commandments are detrimental to society as a whole, because not everyone is a believer in Abraham’s god, or in any god. O, really? Is money not a God? Or drugs? Sex? Do these things take our mind off of what is important in the long run? ---
**Author:** ![Granny\_Rainbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Granny\_Rainbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Granny_Rainbow)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/56 "2012-02-04T06:53:29Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > We _don’t_ have a creator going by all the evidence, and if we do he can go stuff himself into a black hole as far as I’m concerned; we owe it nothing. Any creator that made us did a terrible job and abandoned us to claw ourselves out of the mud by our own efforts and despite our limitations & design flaws. If we have a creator, by all appearances we are by far its moral superior; we certainly shouldn’t be looking to it for moral advice. HE is aware of how you feel, and is recording all the posts you make. And the mess we are in is a direct result of not following his general rules HE set down for us. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/57 "2012-02-04T06:53:33Z")
> [@Granny\_Rainbow](#): > > O, really? Is money not a God? Or drugs? Sex? No. They are, respectively, a cultural construct, chemicals, and a pleasurable social activity. > [@Granny\_Rainbow](#): > > Do these things take our mind off of what is important in the long run? Sometimes. Sometimes they are what’s important. ---
**Author:** ![Granny\_Rainbow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Granny\_Rainbow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Granny_Rainbow)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/58 "2012-02-04T06:56:30Z")
> [@Ambivalid](#): > > Indeed. That is why I said it was _all dressed-up_ as an intellectual argument. I am not promoting any religion or belief system. I expected to be hit by alot of ‘anit-christian’ stuff. I do not judge anyone. I only try to get you to think…think…there a lot of things we are not aware of and things going on in the universe that we know not of…but we can tune into if we so desire… ---
**Author:** ![ambushed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@ambushed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ambushed)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/59 "2012-02-04T06:58:23Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Like I said in another recent thread, some of them are good ideas, and the good ideas were around before the 10 Commandments, of course. Lying is usually a bad thing, although there are circumstances where it can be a kindness or the least-worst option. Depending on how you read the commandment in question, killing is almost always bad or murder is essentially always bad. There are very few exceptions to that one. Stealing is wrong but occasionally excusable because of necessity. Adultery is wrong, and about all you can say there is that affairs of the heart can get very complicated. Coveting is a mixed bag … Oh, my! It seems that it’s not just **Granny Rainbow** who doesn’t seem to know or remember the **official** Ten Commandments! But don’t feel bad. Even God forgot them! You probably also think you “know” (from seeing the Charlton Heston movie, anyway) that Moses smashed the tablets of the God-written Ten Commandments that is falsely imagined to be so well known to believers. What you may not know is that even God forgot what they said! Just as surprising to many of you will be the fact that the new ones are quite different from The Ten Commandments Mark I and that, as the latest God-crafted set, the new ones supersede the old ones. Believers _should_ be honoring the Decalogue Mark II. So let’s read our Bibles, shall we? And learn how – much akin to Joseph Smith and the first 116 original pages of the Book of Mormon – God had a “senior moment”, _forgot_ the contents of the original Decalogue, and was forced to fabricate (in both senses of the word) The Ten Commandments Mark II from a rather imperfect memory. Let’s start with > [@God](#): > > The LORD said to Moses, "Cut two tables of stone like the first; and I will write upon the tables the words that were on the first tables, which you broke. > > Be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. > > No man shall come up with you, and let no man be seen throughout all the mountain; let no flocks or herds feed before that mountain." So Moses cut two tables of stone like the first; and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai, as the LORD had commanded him, and took in his hand two tables of stone. The setting has now been established. Since Moses broke the tablets of the Ten Commandments Mark I, God told him to come back and He would (and I quote verbatim): **“write upon the tables the words that were on the first tables”** In other words, God said Mark II was going to be an exact copy of Mark I. Except God was either fibbing or He had forgotten the contents of the original, for in verses 11-28 we see the new, revised and improved Ten Commandments, which are NOT the same as the first set! (I have embedded the Commandment numbers in the text): > [@God](#): > > And he said, Behold, I make a covenant: before all thy people I will do marvels, such as have not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation: and all the people among which thou [art] shall see the work of the LORD: for it [is] a terrible thing that I will do with thee. > > Observe thou that which I command thee this day: behold, I drive out before thee the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. > > **[Commandment 1]** Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee: > > But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves: > > For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name [is] Jealous, [is] a jealous God: > > Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and [one] call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice; > > And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a whoring after their gods. > > **[Commandment 2]** Thou shalt make thee no molten gods. > > **[Commandment 3]** The feast of unleavened bread shalt thou keep. Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month Abib: for in the month Abib thou camest out from Egypt. > > **[Commandment 4]** All that openeth the matrix [is] mine; and every firstling among thy cattle, [whether] ox or sheep, [that is male]. > > But the firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb: and if thou redeem [him] not, then shalt thou break his neck. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem. And none shall appear before me empty. > > **[Commandment 5]** Six days thou shalt work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: in earing time and in harvest thou shalt rest. > > **[Commandment 6]** And thou shalt observe the feast of weeks, of the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the feast of ingathering at the year’s end. > > **[Commandment 7]** Thrice in the year shall all your men children appear before the Lord GOD, the God of Israel. > > For I will cast out the nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders: neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD thy God thrice in the year. > > **[Commandment 8]** Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the passover be left unto the morning. > > **[Commandment 9]** The first of the firstfruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God. > > **[Commandment 10]** Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk. > > And the LORD said unto Moses, **Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.** > > And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. **And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.** I’m very worried about God’s memory. He’s clearly suffering from senile dementia or something… ;), but on the other hand, I’ve never encountered a Christian in the wild who knew what the official Ten Commandments say either. So many religious folks are so adamant about not only living by, but also posting the Ten Commandments in public schools, courthouses, and all kinds of other public buildings. Yet they clearly don’t even know what they really say! Perhaps we should all try to do a better job of getting the word out… But **Granny Rainbow** ’s right. If we’d done a lot less kid-boiling and a lot more whoring, the world would be near perfect! ---
**Author:** ![ambushed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@ambushed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ambushed)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2012, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736/60 "2012-02-04T07:00:35Z")
> [@Granny\_Rainbow](#): > > I am not attacking any particlar person or behaviour…I just asked a question and expected some thought on it. That’s non-responsive. Your premise is _particularly_ stupid and false. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/10-commandments/611736.md?page=4)