The Bible's First Commandment is usually translated as 'I am the Lord Thy God. Thou shalt have no false gods before me, for I am a jealous God.' There is no commandment there to have a true God ('I am the Lord Thy God' and 'for I am a jealous God' are statements, not commandments). But 'Thou shalt have no false gods before me' is clearly a commandment, and seemingly the only way to be sure not to have any false gods is not to have any gods - that is, to be a godless atheist. As some sort of agnostic myself, I may well not be godless enough, but then as an agnostic I don't trust Biblical Commandments (hey, for all I know, they could be Satanic attempts to turn agnostics like me into atheists!). But Christians and Jews presumably ought to take their own First Commandment more seriously than I do. So wouldn't they be 'safer' becoming atheists? And if not, why not? And why couldn't 'God' have been less perversely ambiguous when giving Moses His First Commandment on Mount Sinai?
2007-07-16
05:51:30
·
20 answers
·
asked by
tlhslobus
2
in
Religion & Spirituality