A list of things you can do without breaking any of the 10 commandments

You can’t covet your neighbor’s wife, or covet your neighbor’s ass, but is it Ok to covet your neighbor’s wife’s ass?

Speaking as a Christian, this is exactly how I’ve always interpreted it. I figure if God had meant to say “I am the only god”, he would have left our the “before me” qualifier.

So you’re free to believe in, pray to, make offerings to, and otherwise interact with any and all gods of your choosing, as long as you remember who’s Numero Uno.

Isn’t this in fact because the Jews were monolatrists, not monotheists? They believed in the existence of other gods but YHWH was the only one they worshipped. Eventually they moved to monotheism and the commandment was then seen in a different light.

I don’t think Christianity has ever admitted the existence of a god other than the one true God, it would kind of defeat the point, wouldn’t it?

[Der Trihs mode]

I fear the vast majority of Christians are willfully obuse on this issue.

[/der trihs mode]

Der Trihs would have stopped after obtuse. :smiley:

It’s as close to DTM as I can get on this issue. Generally speaking, though, I’m at least 65! times as big an asshole as he is.

And of COURSE that’s 65 factorial!

Pffffft - you’re a widdle puddy cat and you know it, your posturing is fooling no-one.

Strokes the adorable little Skald and rubs his belly for good measure

I never had to put up with crap like this when I had the monkeys. By the way, you meant that the Hebrews were henotheists, I think.

No, I meant what I originally said. My understanding of the evolution of Jewish religion is that they accepted there were other gods but they only prayed to one - that’s monolatry, not henotheism. The wiki article on monolatrism agrees with me.

That said it’s all semantics, since I don’t believe in any god at all (other than me, that is).

Wouldn’t that make it the Bill of Wrongs then? :cool:

Now this is my kind of old time religion!

It’s interesting to me that (at least in the wikipedia-linked version), the Noahide Laws only seem to prohibit male homosexuality, without even mentioning lesbianism. Is this just a matter of translation/interpretation, or is that law deliberately worded that way?

I don’t know for certain but I suspect the creators of Noahide laws had the same mindset as queen Victoria when thinking about human sexuality.

I keep reading this a “Naugahyde” laws. The laws that govern fake leather.

Personally, what I find cool about the [del]Naugahyde[/del] Noahide laws is that if you aren’t Jewish but follow them, you’re ok. It’s about how you act, not what you believe. Cool.

ETA: other things I can do- slowly tease my cat by dangling and twitching this piece of string. Bwahahaha

But why would you want to follow them if you’re not Jewish? :confused:

I read “before me” as “in my presence”.

Hmm…

I could see this maybe creating some confusion.

“Before” is often translated “besides”, as is made clearer by the context -

Regards,
Shodan

To me it underlies a philosophical idea- that your acts are more important than your beliefs.

The people that this rule pertains to are trying to co-exist and the idea says that if you respect the laws you don’t have to be Jewish to be righteous. Contrast that with the idea held by many, for example, that regardless of your actions if you don’t accept Jesus you will be damned.

It also lays the groundwork for why I can reconcile atheism and Judaism in my own life, and that I can be surrounded by theists (at my synagogue) that have no problem with my atheism.

Okay, - I see where you’re coming from. Just be thankful you’re not gay. :smiley: