What would your 10 commandements say?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I. I might be wrong. Thou shalt refrain from believing anything that I say without seriously considering that I might be fuill of shit no matter what reputation or authority I end up claiming, or is claimed in my name.

II. Anyone Else Might be Wrong. Thou shalt similarly refrain from ensconcing any authority as definitely known truth, but shall instead suspend belief long enough to question everything, even as thou shalt proceed as best possible under provisional assumptions.

III. Thou Shalt Not Coerce. Insofar as thou knowest not right from wrong or indeed anything else beyond doubt, thou shalt not deliberately structure physical or social forces in such a way as to remove or reduce the option of considered choice from those thou dealest with.

IV. Thou Shalt Strive. In a world where certainty of right and wrong is not objectively definable, thou shalt care and trust to thine own feelings and passions, and shalt do what thou wilt in service of truth as thee discerneth it, so long as thou coerceth not.

V. Thou Shalt Bridge Divisions. Whensoever two things doth be characterized as opposites, thou shalt consider ways in which a view not in accordance with either perspective doth exist. Thou shalt such vantage points consider and question thee all dualities. Remember thee this, that all divisions are cuts, and thou hast done the cutting, and could cut differently.

VI. Thou shalt contemplate what God ought to be, should God exist, if God were made manifest as one such as thou art; and havingt so contemplated, thou shalt live as if thou wert God made flesh, embodying all that God ought to be.

VII. Thou shalt Forgive. In a world of uncertainty and where one must strive for truth and should care, yet may be wrong, one’s companions and acquaintances and comrade sentient beings in similar strife shall wrong thee, hurt thee, or disappoint thee, and thou shalt love and forgive them and hold no grudge or harbor no thirst for vengeance, however small.

VIII. Thou shalt inquire. In a world of uncertainty, thou shalt seek understanding. Thou shalt love thine own curiosities, and seek wisdom and knowledge, whilst still knowing that uncertain thou shalt remain.

IX. Thou shalt transcend. Thy body ageth, and withereth, and so becomes not fit for life, and shalt die. If who thou art is mere individual, thou dost die ignorant; find thy shared self in ideas, in communities of others, in processes, and in such identity thou shalt live forever.

X. Thou shalt stop counting commandments. I thinketh X of these is yea pretentious. Thou writest thine own. If thou needest another to provide commandments, thou hast fallen asunder of the commandment to strive and inquire. Be thou a writer of thine own commandments instead.

22

These are good. I will say all of these, but replace #2 with “never, ever wear a fannypack or allow your loved ones to wear them”.

23

1.0 Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

2.0 Love your neighbor as you love yourself, without regard to race, creed, color, or national origin.

3.0 Repeat 1.0 & 2.0 as necessary.

24

1: Thou shalt not worship anything or anyone, including these Ten Commandments.

2 : Thou shalt not initiate violence.

3 : Thou shalt not harm those who disagree on matters of taste or opinion.

4 : Thou shalt not ignore the facts nor distort one’s reason to serve one’s fantasies or prejudices, nor make up imaginary things to base one’s decisions upon.

5 : Thou shalt not own or subjugate any human equivalent thinking being.

6 : Thou shalt treat the needs and desires of others as being of the same innate worth as your own.

7 : Thou shalt not cause unnecessary suffering.

8 : Thou shalt consider the consequences of one’s actions to all people, present and future, as best as you are able.

9 : Thou shalt not intrude upon the privacy or bodies of others against their desire, save to protect others, or in case of the mental disorder or ignorance of the individual.

10 : Thou shalt not treat or regard others as inferior or evil because of their appearance, ancestry, family, or nation.

25

I like Der Trihs’s #2 better than a blanket “Thou shall not kill.” Mine would be, “Thou shall not murder. If you’re forced to kill in defense of yourself or others, don’t beat yourself up too much about it.”

I don’t know if I could come up with 10, but:

  1. Mind your own damn business.
  2. Don’t murder.
  3. Don’t steal.
  4. Treat others the way you wish to be treated. Or better.
  5. I mean it. Mind your own damn business.
26

I have always thought that this was a terrible rule and the cause of much resentment among people. It assumes that others want to be treated the same way you want to be treated, which isn’t always the case. It should be “Do unto others as they want you to do unto them.” Of course we can’t always know what other people want us to do unto them and often the best guide may be what we think we would want in the same situation, but our focus should still be on what they want, not what we want. I had a boss once who thought he was doing me a big favor by giving me as an assignment a task he would have loved doing when he was in my place. He never thought about what I wanted. I hated the task and left the job shortly thereafter. He lost a good employee by following the Golden Rule.

27

Hmm. Are these personal or moral commandments? I’ll split mine in half.

Personal:

  1. Thou shalt not be a dick.*

  2. Thou shalt remember, at all times and in all situations, that other people are human, and treat them accordingly.

  3. Thou shalt taketh of thy chill pills; ignore minor inconveniences where possible.

  4. Thou art not all that awesome, and even if thou weres’t, thy neighbor would still not want to hear about it.

  5. Thou shalt mind thy own damn business.

*Thou should not need the phrase explicitly defined, but if thou dost: “being a dick” is doing something with the specific intent to cause another person anger, sadness, embarrassment, or general distress of any kind.

Moral:

  1. Pragmatism is the essence of evil; under no circumstances do the ends ever justify the means.

  2. The source, and therefore the basis, of all morality is the individual.

  3. Morality applies only to willful actions of individuals; physical entities of any kind are innately amoral.

  4. The authority to judge the morality of an action lies solely with those individuals directly affected by that action.

  5. An action is immoral if any of the individuals directly affected by it deem the intent of the action to be so; if none do, the action is moral or amoral.
    Those last five should tell you why I stay out of political debates around here. :wink:

28

I have only one.

1 - Thou shalt not need an imaginary parental figure empowered with omnipotence and infallibility to cast common sense into divine annals as a weapon for the righteous. Seriously, it’ll be a problem one day.

29

After thinking about this for a while, I concluded that I can’t improve upon the original. Therefore:

  1. Worship the one true God, and no other deities.

  2. Do not worship any physical object.

  3. Do not invoke the name of God when it is inappropriate to do so.

  4. Keep the Sabbath holy.

  5. Respect your mother and father.

  6. Do not murder.

  7. Do not commit adultery.

  8. Do not steal.

  9. Do not lie.

  10. Do not envy other persons, or anything they have.