So Christians, how do you reconcile these ridiculous aspects of your ten commandments?

Question

The first commandment requires that no god other than Yahweh is to be worshipped. This is in open conflict with the "first freedom" in the U.S. and Canada -- religious freedom.

The second commandment, interpreted literally, punishes a man's children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and even great-great grandchildren if the man has sinned by serving other Gods. Spreading the responsibility for one person's sin onto innocent descendents (ie. innocent children) is widely considered a seriously immoral act.

The fifth commandment requires that children honor their parents., however it is universally considered unreasonable to expect a child to honor a parent who was a sexual molester, a physical abuser or was guilty of neglect.

There are two problems associated with the tenth commandment:
1) It treats women as pieces of property
2) It condones slavery. The terms "manservant" and "maidservant" in in the King James Version of the Bible refer to male and female slaves.

So how 'bout it?

Not my words... got this info directly outta King James

Answer 1

I think it is an incredibly sad state of affairs that people have a problem with this question. I'm even further saddened by a few of the answers I'm seeing here... I can't believe that people actually espouse any of these principles.

First of all, the asker has a point. NONE of the Ten Commandments have any basis in American law, so why are people striving to put them into our courtrooms?

Second of all, freedom of religion means freedom FROM religion. You are free to worship as you please... and you are free from being forced to worship anything. Government-mandated religion is against the law and unconstitutional, much to the chagrin of most of the Christians in this forum.

Answer 2

Excellent topic. Well, I always look at it from the perspective that these writings are literally thousands of years old and have been translated countless times. The ideaology during this period toward God, mothers, fathers, women, slaves and people in general was much different.

I am not a biblical fundamentalist though. So I'm probably not the best to answer. I don't think every word should be weighed as heavily as the general idea of what the verse says. Besides, trying to decipher the language of that time could prove to be impossible as far as being able to tell when someone was joking, or making a strange comparison, or being over-exaggerated in text.

As far as the first commandment part, I think the forefathers of the U.S. were mostly believers in God, but left Europe in order to have the freedom to make their own decisions and practice whatever religion they wanted, therefore this "first freedom" was a result.

Answer 3

The ten commands were given by God to give the Jewish Law a basis or basic guidelines, if you will. If the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of God is alive in you. With God in His rightful place in your mind, you wouldn't violate those things purposly anyway. I think it is a matter of interpetation as to where you put the emphasis on the Word. It is called rightly dividing the Truth. You cannot do that without Gods Spirit in you so you can see it with spiritual discernment. The scriptures were never written with periods and commas, etc. it was a continual script. Jesus says to love your brothers as your self and to love God with yur whole being. If you obey that command it kinda incoorperates the rest don't you think.
God does NOT expect you to honor the devil. When he says, respect someone, he is talking about the real person, the reflection of God, not the natural man that the person created with the help of the devil. God would never command you to honor even your spouse or the president or anybody that was not operating in the Spirit of God. It is the God in people that God expect us to honor and respect. That does not mean to dis-respect the person either. We are to love the sinner and hate the sin. So it is about the mindset, and God never wants us to honor the devil whether it comes from the dog, the frog, the goldfish or a human. We are given the ability to discern what is God, and what isn't, when we get the Holy Spirit baptism.

Answer 4

What? What does the US constitution have to do with the Ten Commandments? That's the...(biting tongue until it bleeds).

As for respecting your parents, I'm not getting your point there either. No parent is perfect. I might not think my parents think are saints, and trust me, my parents were not, but I still respect the fact that they gave birth to me.

You talk of how parents can't pass problems onto their children. Does that explain how alcoholism can be genetically passed down? Statistics have proven, time and again, that troubled parents tend to have troubled children.

How is the last commandment exclusively about property? If a woman saw my husband, and got a crush on him, and tried to steal him away from me, I'd say that was a sin. It isn't always just about women.

I love how nonbelievers twist things around to what they don't really mean.
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Answer 5

This is ridiculous and I'll tell you why:

The first commandment is not in conflict with religoius freedom. Christians believe God directly gave the Ten Commandments to Moses but nobody believes this happened with the First Amendment which allows religious freedom. So, your argument there is completely specious and ridiculous. The commandments say those who worship God should keep his commandments. But if you don't worship Yahweh (Christian and Jewish God) then you have religous freedom. Don't confuse religious laws with civic laws. That's just ridiculous.

With the second commandment you have to look at the timeframe. To us today, yes, it sounds ridiculous. But the Israelites he gave those words to understand that style of punishment as it was used in their society. The whole family suffers for the sins of one member. It's a cultural thing.

As an ideal, one must honor your parents. Is this a bad thing even today? Of course this is not a ridiculous commandment. It does not say to be a slave to your parents. Honoring a bad parent may be bringing them to the police if they molest you. You are doing what is right in the world and thus honoring them by not allowing them to continue in such an evil act without consequences.

It's a stretch to say that the tenth commandment treats women as pieces of poverty. It could said not to covet another wife's husband as the Bible makes it clear that in the ideal marriage, the man and woman own each other's body, and no others should covet them. Also, you have to again realize it was given to the Israelites, who had a patriarchal society, with the man as head of the family. Makes complete sense if you allow yourself to look at in context.

Also, slavery was a fact of life and accepted in many societies for thousands of years. Now that we realize this err, then we need not worry about coveting another's slave. It is merely a cultural thing yet again. You just have to look at everything in cultural and historical context and it can be explained.

Answer 6

Hey, I think this is totally offensive. I don't practice Christianity, or any reliogion at that but seriously...You're twisting the ten commandments up so that they sound bad. It's really a matter of interpretation and your's seems really biased. What do you have against Christians??
And by the way, about the first commandment that only applies to those who practice Christianity. So it is not in conflict with the first commandment.
Ooo you got burned.

Answer 7

Your statements are easily answerable and normally would be happy to respond but the way you phrased your question as 'ridiculous commandments' shows a mindset that actually isnt seeking answers to begin with. No matter how well someone responds you are simply using this as an avenue for bigotry and Christian hatred

Answer 8

Canadian and American law are a funny concept when thinking about the 10 commandments. I guess I am a slave to the Lord. The laws of Moses are great considering they've held up 4,000 years. But the new law is "Love the lord your God with your whole heart and soul and love your neighbor as yourself." Try to live up to these and you'll do fine.

Answer 9

You have problems with four of the commandments. That leaves six for you to follow. Just concentrate on them.

Answer 10

First of all, Christians follow the golden rule set by jesus, do unto others as you would have them do to you. So, jewish people tend to try to live up to the big ten. The big ten are mentioned in the old testament or as the jews would call it the torah. Also, let it be known that the big ten are what we should all try to live up to, but as humans we are constantly failing. Now, why don't you tell me what is so shameful about my face that I should hide it under a cloth.