# The Atheist 10 Commandments **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 21, 2022, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568 "2022-06-21T17:50:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568/61 "2022-06-23T16:39:38Z")
If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when? ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568/62 "2022-06-23T16:58:12Z")
The problem with the Golden Rule is that people are weird and sometimes like weird things to be done to them. Wouldn’t it be better stated as “do unto others how they would like to be done unto”? Or, “don’t do unto others how they don’t like to be done” or something? It’s weird that rape isn’t in many of the lists above. I guess it’s “theft” of some sort? That sounds terrible and minimizes the horror. Anyway, any universal moral code should definitely prohibit rape and sexual assault. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568/63 "2022-06-23T17:45:29Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > It’s weird that rape isn’t in many of the lists above. Well, that pretty much falls under the Golden Rule. The generalized notion that you shouldn’t harm others encompasses rape, and pretty much any other personal injury crime. We could probably reduce the problem of “moral absolutes” causing problems by just appending “…unless the situation warrants it” to most of our “commandments”. “Thou shalt not kill…unless the situation warrants it. See Bob over there about to blow up a community center? Yeah, totally kill _him_.” ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568/64 "2022-06-23T19:34:21Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Well, that pretty much falls under the Golden Rule. The generalized notion that you shouldn’t harm others encompasses rape, and pretty much any other personal injury crime. A universal prohibition on coercion covers it, too. ---
**Author:** ![themapleleaf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/themapleleaf/32/14349_2.png) [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568/65 "2022-06-23T21:30:18Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > > [@themapleleaf](#): > > > > Firstly, making conveniently concise and explicit systematized lists of moral rules runs the risk of creating “moral absolutes”. Take the example of the Biblical commandment against adultery. Let’s say it’s “bad” to cheat on your spouse. But what if it’s consensual, I.E., the married couple enjoys group sex? Or what if the marriage has broken down and is likely heading toward divorce anyway? Just saying “adultery is bad” begs the question of exceptions, and some people will not think out of the box but will simply overgeneralize the principle. > > I haven’t plowed through your whole post yet, but you are putting forward the original 10 commandments as examples of problematic absolutes, when I am inviting you to throw those away and give me whatever you want. For example, “Do not kill anyone, unless it is the only way to keep them from killing an innocent person, including you.” You want me to throw away the original ten commandments and give you something you, yet you give as an example a commandment derived from the sixth commandment “Thou shalt not kill”. I did give examples of “moral absolutes” from the original ten, because these illustrate my point about moral absolutes well, but they are just examples and attempts to make up new “moral commandments” would run the risk of being the same kind of moral absolutes. This was my original point and I think I stated so clearly in my last full paragraph above. Perhaps you should have plowed through my whole post before commenting. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568/66 "2022-06-23T21:45:21Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > #3: Since final doom could happen any time, I actually completed it around 1997. 😉 > **[Final Doom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Doom)** > > Final Doom is a first-person shooter video game developed by TeamTNT, and Dario and Milo Casali, and was released by id Software and distributed by GT Interactive in 1996. It was released for MS-DOS and Macintosh computers, as well as for the PlayStation, although the latter featured a selection of levels from Final Doom and from Master Levels for Doom II. > The third entry in the Doom franchise, Final Doom consists of two 32-level episodes (or megawads), TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment... ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Borgia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/larry_borgia/32/156_2.png) [@Larry\_Borgia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Borgia)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2022, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568/67 "2022-06-23T21:59:52Z")
Here is a list from Wikipedia. It includes alternate 10 commandments from Dawkins, Hitchens, and Bertrand Russel. Most of them are fairly good guides to decent behavior. > **[Alternatives to the Ten Commandments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternatives_to_the_Ten_Commandments)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > Several alternatives to the Ten Commandments have been promulgated by different persons and groups, which intended to improve on the lists of laws known as the Ten Commandments that appear in the Bible. Lists of these kinds exist in many different cultures and times. They are sometimes given names – for example, the Hindu Yamas. > Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, social critic, political activis... ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568/68 "2022-06-24T07:18:13Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > Muslim was that all morality comes from Allah starting with the first human (it was a little unclear as to how this would work since Islam was not founded until the 600s). The Islamic tenet is that Islam is the original religion and that other faiths were successors which somehow managed to change the original religion. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2022, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568/69 "2022-06-24T13:17:22Z")
“Atheist 10 commandments” may make sense to the Christian turned Atheist, but it sounds too simplistic to me as a Hindus atheist. The Rig Veda written around 1500 BCE contains some of the key atheist concepts that I have found interesting. Most Indian origin scriptures contain Theist and Atheist approaches at the same time, so there is no one text for atheists. The Mimasa written in the 7th century may have the equivalent of 10 commandments for Atheists, since part of it deals with living life within the boundaries of “law”; with emphasis on “social duties”. The Mimasas are not very popular amongst most Hindu schools of Philosophy but they are thought to have inspired the foundations of Buddhism. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568/70 "2022-06-25T14:49:56Z")
> [@am77494](#): > > “Atheist 10 commandments” may make sense to the Christian turned Atheist, but it sounds too simplistic to me as a Hindus atheist. Good observation. I am not a Christian turned atheist but I swim in a Christian sea so my perspective is colored by that. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2022, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568/71 "2022-06-25T16:23:16Z")
I was thinking myself that atheists have even less a central governing body than Baptists do, and look how diverse they are. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-atheist-10-commandments/966568.md?page=3)