Why do we need the 10 commandments as moral guide?

Question

Do you mean to tell me that before God (or his human intern, Moses) wrote those rules in Stone, we didn't know that it wasn't cool to kill people?
You think it slowed down the amount of killing afterwards or stayed pretty much the same?

Answer 1

is morality inherent? or is it learned. are we naturally moral, or does it go against our basic instincts?

Answer 2

10 commandments as a moral guide. Yes. I believe they did back then and the world does now. How were they supposed to know that adultery was a sin. Clearly they did that kind of thing all the time. Considering how easily they slipped into idoltry all throughout history, clearly they had a problem sticking with the true and living God.

The 10 commandments are a guide for unbelievers today. Christians aren't under the mosaic law, but the 10 commandments are there to convict an unbelieving world of their sin, in order that the know they cannot live up ever, realize no one can ever, and understand sin = death and come to Christ for life. The 10 commandments are very convicting.

Answer 3

Wow.

The 10 commandments are so funny to read.

GEORGE CARLIN ON THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
from "Complaints and Grievances" (HBO special)

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'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 bull. 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 4

I think that a kid can learn on his own that you shouldn't touch a stove cause it's hot- but if you tell the kid before had-then it can save them from being burned. I think that the curious nature-or the rush of doing something you know you can't may get the better of the kid and they might still touch it-but they were warned and you can say-see I told you not to- so now you got burned. Same with God. Before that-people thought it was o.k. to murder depending on the situation- or with child sacrifice as well. Did this change after the 10 commandments-nope-like the kid some got curious or just wanted to have that rush. God gave us rules so we wouldn't get burned-Thar's all.

Answer 5

The law Moses gave to the Israelites was not given because they were morally ignorant. It was to distinguish between what the Lord justified and what the people who were currently living in Israel, the Canaanites, considered socially acceptable.

Leviticus 20
22 " 'Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. 23 You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. 24 But I said to you, "You will possess their land; I will give it to you as an inheritance, a land flowing with milk and honey." I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the nations.

Answer 6

We don't need them as a moral code. The way I see it, if you need a book or a religion to tell you that killing someone, robbing them, or sleeping with your neighbor's wife is wrong, then you're a pretty stupid person.

The 10 Commandments also teach blind conformity and submission to authority... 'honor thy father' really means don't act out of line and do what your masters tell you...

Answer 7

Do remember that the 10 commandments were for ISRAEL. Not the world. It includes such things as the sabbath which was not meant for the world. Treat them as the beginning and introduction of Gods law and the revelation of his character.

As far as a moral guide goes, God himself is our guide, not the law.

Answer 8

Try to remember that when those were written the nation of Israel did not exist and they had no structure for government of any kind. God was building a nation and that was the starting point. When Jesus came He just gave us 2 and it sums ups all of them. Love God with your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as youself.

Answer 9

When sin came into the world so did murder. God gave us the ten commandments to live by. We get our laws from the ten commandments where by we are punished when we disobey them. Could you imagine what chaos we would be in without the ten commandments? We will always have bad things happen as long as there is sin the world.

Answer 10

It is really nine, we don't keep the shabbos holy any more. The other nine are really a common moral thread that runs through any civilized ( and I stress civilized ) people. The Jews just wrote it down in the order it is in today.

Answer 11

Good point. It stayed the same, I'm sure. As long as you take out all the people who have been murdered in god's name.