How many of the Ten Commandments, really, are part of secular law?

Question

Which 9? I can place 3, maybe 4...

Answer 1

Secular law came from common sense, which is where the Ten Commandments came from.

Answer 2

The only parts of the Ten Commandments that are secular law in all fifty states are the ban against thievery, bearing false witness (perjury or filing a false police statement), and murder.
The military and some states also enforce the ban against adultery (but it is rarely, if ever, enforced).
Keeping the Sabbath holy, only one God, making false idols, and making wrongful use of the name of God would (for the time being) be a violation of the first amendment. Honoring your parents and not coveting your neighbor's wife or house might be nice suggestions, but they have no force of law.
As you can see, the idea that the laws of the USA are based on the Ten Commandments is pretty ridiculous. Just like saying all morals come from God, religion or the Bible.

Answer 3

I would have to say none. Let me explain:
The Commandments which say "Thou shalt not kill/steal" are so general , besides murder and stealing have been crimes which deserve punishment BEFORE the supposed time of the revealing of the 10 Commandments, like the Hammurabi laws (Which are seen as the source of the 10 Commandments by many historians, and in which Hammurabi says that a Divine Being gave him those laws). Many countries follow other religions. For instance, China is an Atheist country, and still, murder, theft, lying under oath are punishable under law. Same applies to Islamic countries and so on. Yeah sure the bible says do not kill, but so do many ancient laws that came before that.

Answer 4

Since you already received an answer let me extend it...

There are 9 "Natural Laws" that have been considered to be the distillation of what humans can agree on.

Interestingly enough, to find the laws it became more important to consider what people did NOT want done to them, and then to use that to discover how best to describe what not to do.

PS: "Secularity (adjective form secular) is the state of being SEPERATE from organized religion." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular

Also, there are far to many philosophers named Thomas.

Answer 5

no longer something is substantial to secular society different than technological know-how. faith isn't element of that realm. faith is predicated on faith, have confidence, admire and concept in GOD. attempting to evaluate GOD and secular is an oxymoron attempt at ultimate. We each now and then say oxymoronically while putting an animal down "it became into sort to be cruel and kill it". no longer something could properly be maximum cruel than killing. there's no kindness there! So the ten Commandments can no longer and could no longer benefit secular society with the aid of fact they have not got faith. they have not got self belief. they have not got have confidence in God.

Answer 6

It is true there are only 3. the first 4 deal with man's relationship with God.
Thou shall have no other gods before me (violates freedom of religion)
Thou shall not make a graven image (violates freedom of religion)
Thou shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain (violates freedom of speech)
Remember the sabbath day and keep it holy.
Freedom of religion means these cannot be legislated.
The other 6 deal with man's relationship to other people. so:

Honor your father and mother (can't be legislated)
Thou shall not kill
Thou shall not steal
Thou shall not bear false testimony.
Thou shall not commit adultery. (There used to be grounds for divorce for infidelity but that has been phased out.)
Thou shall not covet (is a thought process and cannot be legislated.)
So you are correct only 3 are left.

Answer 7

You do know what the word 'secular ' means, don't you? It means "against religion".

But I think I understand what you are trying to say. So, here goes.

"Thou shalt not commit adultery". It's there on the books even though it may not be enforced in most of western society.

"Thou shalt do no murder". Need any comments?

"Thou shalt not steal". We have all heard of shop-lifting, praedial larceny, grand auto theft, etc.

"Thou shalt not bear false witness". Ever heard of perjury?

Each one of these can be expanded, with various appropriate punishment assigned.

Answer 8

You are mixing your sins and crimes. Its not a crime to ogle someones riding tractor (thanks, guys.) But, it is a crime to commit perjury, thou shalt not bear false witness. There isn't a law against dissing your parents unless it gets physical. Personally, any child that would call a parent lazy and stupid should be moved out by the next time they arrive. And I think God considers that a sin.

Answer 9

First you'll have to figure out which variation of the 10 Commandments you're talking about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments#Division_of_the_commandments

Answer 10

9 of them.