atheists can you counter the fact that the commandments of GOD are valid to this day?

Question

thay are the basis for many of the wrolds constitutions

i am not trying to bash anyone. i am curious. i thank you for the insults :). i said the basis. except the first ones they are valid to everyone. stealing killing (honouring the parents is general good behaviour), adultery, hmm a lot of truth in them... maybe too much in a world where people could be ruled by brute force don't you think?

Answer 1

If they do, it will be with rhetorical nonsense...

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Answer 2

The basic beliefs of the 10 Commandments predate Moses by about 300 years. They were also common in cultures around the world that had never had contact with the Israelites.

Many historians believe that the Ten Commandments originated from ancient Egyptian religion. It is likely that the Biblical Jews borrowed the concept of the 10 commandments after their Exodus from Egypt.

Book of the Dead (a.k.a. the Papyrus of Ani) was written circa 1800 BCE. Hebrew Exodus from Egypt and the provision of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai occurred in about 1490 BCE. according to Christian mythos, over three centuries later. The Jews of Exodus would have been exposed to these beliefs, even if they were not fully aware of the details.

Chapter 125 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead includes a list commandments that the Egyptians must follow to enter the afterlife. Although there are cultural differences, the Jewish Ten Commandments bear a remarkable resemblance to the Commandments in the Book of Ani.

In the Exodus myth, God delivers the Jews from Pharoh in a mass escape, they wander the desert, and God gives Moses the 10 Commandments. One must ask why, if these commandments are so important, were they not given to the Jews in the Garden of Eden? If indeed these commandments were original laws from God, the Jews should have already had them. However, God doesn't see fit to give them to the Jews until they are without leadership, and dying in the desert.

Moses, as the adopted son of Pharoh, would have been intimately familiar with The Book of Ani. So if the legend has even a shred of truth in it, it is clear that when Moses wrote the 10 Commandments, he simply adopted it to the needs of the Jews from the Book of Ani.

To say that they are the basis for many of the worlds constitutions is simply not true. There are perhaps 4 of the 10 Commandments that are included in many Constitutions, but it is not because they are of "Godly origin", it is because they are valid laws to govern a society which have existed since before the Jews invented Jehovah

-SD-

Answer 3

First of all im sure you are of the camp that believes that our constitution is based on the 10 commandments... It's not, read it you will see.

Secondly lets go thru them:

#1 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
how is this commandment valid? How has it ever been valid? God's never been proven to exist... nor have any others...

#2 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing
Ever drawn a picture? I guess you've broken a commandment. And i dare you to find THAT in any constitution.

#3 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain
See my answer for #1

#4 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Does this even mean anything? What does it mean to keep something holy? and does it tell you what the sabath day is? nope!

#5 Honour thy father and thy mother
This one i'll agree with, but... there's nothing devine about it, its common sense.

#6 Thou shalt not kill
Again, common sense... but wait a minuite... thou shalt not kill WHAT exactly?? It doesn't say... can i assume i've broken this one since i've killed bugs before?

#7 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Again, common sense, but it seems to happen all the time anyway... and the only laws governing it, here at least, are that you can get more out of a divorce settlement if you can prove it has taken place.

#8 Thou shalt not steal.
Common sense

#9 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
Common sense

#10 Thou shalt not covet
is there anyone who hasn't ever broken this one?

Finally, is there anything about rape or hatred in there? I guess those are ok.

Try thinking before you ask a question next time.

Answer 4

The 10 Commandments are simple,basic rules that societies followed long before Moses came along-and they are NOT the basis for many of the world's constitutions. The U.S. Constitution is.

Answer 5

Then why doesn't anyone follow most of them? For example, how many people besides Jews keep the sabbath? And if you say that was done away with in the new testament, then it's NOT VALID today, is it?
When's the last time you saw someone jailed for coveting something of his neighbor's ?
Is there really much of a problem today with idol worship? (and I'm not talking about celebrities being idolized)
No other gods before me--how is that possible if as he claims, he's the only one?

How's that, for a start?

Answer 6

What makes you think they were anything other then laws created by men?

And how does the fact that stealing, murder, and adultery are still considered wrong for a productive society have any bearing to god?

If I could create an atheist nation tomorrow, my laws would very closes follow the ten commandments, because those principals are key for an effective happy society.

But none of that gives credence to the existence of god.

Answer 7

My counter is that these "commandments" were a natural set of rules for people in groups to live by long before they were codified and attributed to "god."

Morality does not come from any sort of divine being. It is merely a way for people to live together more harmoniously.

Also, I'd like to point out that several of the "Ten Commandments" are really not valid today:

"I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me... .."
This one is pointless in the twenty-first century.

"Do not make a sculpted image or any likeness of what is in the heavens above"
This one is more ridiculous than the previous one.

"Remember [zachor] the Sabbath day and keep it holy"
There is no need for this one either.

Already, 30% of these commandments are useless to us.

Furthermore, these are not the basis of our constitution. Read up on the religious views of our founding fathers. I think you might be surprised.

Answer 8

2 Corinthians 3:7-11, 14 abolishes the 10 comandments.

Here is my problem with the ten commandments- why exactly are there 10?

You simply do not need ten. The list of ten commandments was artificially and deliberately inflated to get it up to ten. Here's what happened:

About 5,000 years ago a bunch of religious and political hustlers got together to try to figure out how to control people and keep them in line. They knew people were basically stupid and would believe anything they were told, so they announced that God had given them some commandments, up on a mountain, when no one was around.

Well let me ask you this- when they were making this **** up, why did they pick 10? Why not 9 or 11? I'll tell you why- because 10 sound official. Ten sounds important! Ten is the basis for the decimal system, it's a decade, it's a psychologically satisfying number (the top ten, the ten most wanted, the ten best dressed). So having ten commandments was really a marketing decision! It is clearly a bullshit list. It's a political document artificially inflated to sell better. I will now show you how you can reduce the number of commandments and come up with a list that's a little more workable and logical. I am going to use the Roman Catholic version because those were the ones I was taught as a little boy.

Let's start with the first three:

I AM THE LORD THY GOD THOU SHALT NOT HAVE STRANGE GODS BEFORE ME

THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD IN VAIN

THOU SHALT KEEP HOLY THE SABBATH

Right off the bat the first three are pure bullshit. Sabbath day? Lord's name? strange gods? Spooky language! Designed to scare and control primitive people. In no way does superstitious nonsense like this apply to the lives of intelligent civilized humans in the 21st century. So now we're down to 7. Next:

HONOR THY FATHER AND MOTHER

Obedience, respect for authority. Just another name for controlling people. The truth is that obedience and respect shouldn't be automatic. They should be earned and based on the parent's performance. Some parents deserve respect, but most of them don't, period. You're down to six.

Now in the interest of logic, something religion is very uncomfortable with, we're going to jump around the list a little bit.

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL

THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS

Stealing and lying. Well actually, these two both prohibit the same kind of behavior- dishonesty. So you don't really need two you combine them and call the commandment "thou shalt not be dishonest". And suddenly you're down to 5.

And as long as we're combining I have two others that belong together:

THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTRY

THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR'S WIFE

Once again, these two prohibit the same type of behavior. In this case it is marital infidelity. The difference is- coveting takes place in the mind. But I don't think you should outlaw fantasizing about someone else's wife because what is a guy gonna think about when he's waxing his carrot? But, marital infidelity is a good idea so we're gonna keep this one and call it "thou shalt not be unfaithful". And suddenly we're down to four.

But when you think about it, honesty and infidelity are really part of the same overall value so, in truth, you could combine the two honesty commandments with the two fidelity commandments and give them simpler language, positive language instead of negative language and call the whole thing "thou shalt always be honest and faithful" and we're down to 3.

THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOR"S GOODS

This one is just plain ******' stupid. Coveting your neighbor's goods is what keeps the economy going! Your neighbor gets a vibrator that plays "o come o ye faithful", and you want one too! Coveting creates jobs, so leave it alone. You throw out coveting and you're down to 2 now- the big honesty and fidelity commandment and the one we haven't talked about yet:

THOU SHALT NOT KILL

Murder. But when you think about it, religion has never really had a big problem with murder. More people have been killed in the name of god than for any other reason. All you have to do is look at Northern Ireland, Cashmire, the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the World Trade Center to see how seriously the religious folks take thou shalt not kill. The more devout they are, the more they see murder as being negotiable. It depends on who's doin the killin' and who's gettin' killed. So, with all of this in mind, I give you my revised list of the two commandments:

Thou shalt always be honest and faithful to the provider of thy nookie.

&

Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless of course they pray to a different invisible man than you.

Two is all you need; Moses could have carried them down the hill in his ******' pocket. I wouldn't mind those folks in Alabama posting them on the courthouse wall, as long as they provided one additional commandment:

Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself.

Answer 9

Please allow me to answer your question with a question. If God is ALL KNOWING and ALL POWERFUL, then he knew that I would be an Atheist when he created me. He know's whether or not I am going to choose him as my way of life. However, if I never accept God then that means he KNEW I wouldn't choose him and KNEW he would send me to hell. As for the "ten commandments" most of those are basic principles of life. Do not kill, well duh, then how do you as a Christian condone fighting in wars and killing? And you can't say that you wouldn't, if good Christian men didn't fight and kill in world war 2 we would all be Nazi's right now. So are you saying that the ten commandments are open for human interpretation? Isn't it a little less black and white. Who gets to choose? Isn't it still a sin to kill even if it's to save millions of lives? But now we get to the real point of the matter. IT IS OPEN TO INTERPRETATION! How can you justify killing Hitler and still stand up and say the ten commandments should be followed? Religion is a hypocricy. They are only stories passes on to help us lead better moral lives. I do not need a book to condemn me to hell for killing someone wholly evil. If God does exist he will either A) Love me and accept the way HE created me or B) He is a sadistic God that created me for eternal hell and damnation and I wouldn't want to worship someone like that. I know this is a bit long but I hope I have opened your mind.

Answer 10

Only Muslim constitutions say that you shall have no other god but the state god on pang of death. All the Christian nations became secular long ago. And which of the 10 commandments is stated in the USA Constitution and where?

Answer 11

Yes, easily; the Christian commandments are primarily non-religious concepts that have nothing to do with God. Every non-Christian civilization has rules against stealing, murder, etc., and many of them, especially in the far east, PREDATE Christianity. Christianity just took rules that every civilization lives by and claimed them for their own.