Why obey the Ten Commandments if it's just one's man's opinion on what is right and wrong?
2006-12-14 10:33:22 · 33 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
If God does not exist, neither do the Ten Commandments. If God does not exist, then what are we doing here?
I believe that God does exist, and He wrote the Ten Commandments as the basics for living. They're not bad rules: do not murder, do not steal, etc.
Without having set rules on what is right and wrong, there is anarchy. That's why the Ten Commandments were written in the first place.
Something to think about anyway.
2006-12-14 10:49:57 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 5⤋
No. The debate over the existence of "god" is irrelevant here. Fact is, as "Vulcanus" pointed out, the basic moral code was written down by the Babylonians well before the Hebrew testament came along. And the the Babyolonians merely codified the moral law that evolved from our hunter-gatherer days when survival depended upon cooperation within tribal groups and these laws helped that to happen. Now, the first 3 or 4 commandments about worshiping only YHWH are unique to the Hebrews, but the various "christian" sects have many that worship Jesus instead of YHWH, so the 10 commandments are violated by the "churches" all the time. Blessings on your Journey!
2016-05-24 06:02:24 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Moses as an obvious answer. However the Commandments do seem to share some moral ideas with other religions of the time (a little more socially advanced, however, Jews have a tendency to be one of the more socially advanced religions... comes from rabbis almost always being willing to consider alternative points of view).
Furthermore, it could also be a folk-story passed down for a long time. There's plenty of options.
2006-12-14 10:39:40 · answer #3 · answered by Star F 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Moses with a chisel.
And some of the 10 commandments just make sense: Don't kill each other, don't take what isn't yours, don't lie about your fellow human beings. Others, like honoring your parents, make sense SOME of the time. The issue of coveting may make sense if it becomes an obsession.
There's no need to impose a God to see the sense of this. This is just part of the social contract
The sabbath day, the no other gods, the taking the name in vain stuff are just so much religious broo-ha-ha.
2006-12-14 10:35:09 · answer #4 · answered by NHBaritone 7 · 4⤊ 1⤋
I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and the fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my Commandments. God wrote the Commandments. At the creation God wrote His Law in the hearts of all men (conscience). Afterward He gave His Law on Mt. Sinai in Ten Commandments, written on two tablets of stone. The Commandments are from God.
2006-12-14 11:02:31 · answer #5 · answered by Norskeyenta 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Um, if you believe in God, the 10 Commandments ARE one guy's version of what's right and wrong. So what's the question?
2006-12-14 10:36:14 · answer #6 · answered by ReeRee 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Whoever it was that wrote the Bible. Maybe Moses. He was gone for an awful long time.
It's not about obeying them for the sake of religion, they are guidelines to how people should live Christian or not. Don't kill, Don't steal. They are moral guidelines. Were you planning on disobeying such logical rules just to be rebellious?
2006-12-14 10:37:34 · answer #7 · answered by Artemiseos 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ignorance of the masses....
The persecutor of God. -- Paul thought up the idea and Calvin rethought it, that for innumerable people damnation has been decreed from eternity, and that this beautiful world plan was instituted to reveal the glory of God: heaven and hell and humanity are thus supposed to exist - to satisfy the vanity of God! What cruel and insatiable vanity must have flared in the soul of the man who thought this up first, or second. Paul has remained Saul after all - the persecutor of God.
from Nietzsche's The Wanderer and his Shadow, R.J. Hollingdale transl.
2006-12-14 10:42:43 · answer #8 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
man created the ten commandments, plain and simple
You are making a mistake in your assumption about atheists. The assumption (that many Christians incorrectly make), is that atheists are immoral people who have no sense of decency or value. The truth could not be any more different. Atheists still believe in the common good and decency of human existence as well as the basic principle of living life for the benefit of life itself, present and future. So to say that atheists are immoral is a grave mistake. We have never led a war, persecuted others for not believing as we do, slaughtered millions for failing to accept our gods or lack there of (even though MOST organized religions HAVE been at some point responsible for murder, death and slaughter in god's name examples include The Crusades, Jihad, god supposedly telling the Israelites that it was ok to kill for him), or condemned another person for not believing as we do. Your questions should be, "Why are atheists still responsible people who do not fill their lives with sin?"
And the answer is: Because we do not need the threat of hell or the promise of heaven (FEAR) to make us live normal moral lives
2006-12-14 10:34:56 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 2⤋
People created the Ten Commandments, just as they created every other quasi-legal code of conduct down through history. "Thou shalt not kill" was already old when Moses was in short pants.
Why is that so difficult to understand?
2006-12-14 10:44:25 · answer #10 · answered by ? 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋