 The
Ten Commandments are no longer valid.
They are outdated and
outmoded and don't begin to address the
needs of a complex, literate, technological
society or of a civilization of six billion
diverse individuals. OK, some of them,
like "don't
kill" and "don't steal",
are excellent rules to have on the books.
But these were already rules which were
well received and widely accepted tens of
thousands of years before the biblers hijacked
them. In perhaps the greatest act of revisionist
backdating in history, the xians claimed
that they had actually invented morality
in the form of the 10Cs. Never mind the
Code of Hammurabi, which predated the 10Cs
by centuries, and of which we actually have
an existing copy - carved in stone! Ironic,
huh? Numerous other civilizations - China,
India, Sumeria, Egypt - had written
legal codes thousands of years before the
Jews fled into the desert. All those codes
had prohibitions against murder, theft,
adultery, and fraud. And yet the xians persist with
their demonstrably false claim that they
were first. But,
given that these other codes had long existed,
it appears that their god stole all his
best material. Deception
and stolen material. More irony. And despite
the claims that the ten commandments are
the foundation of our legal system, the
ten commandments are not even the foundation
of the ten commandments.
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Now the reason
I even bother to mention all this
is that there
are forces loose in the land demanding
that the 10Cs be
prominently displayed on public property,
in government buildings, our courts,
and in the public schools. These forces
differ from the Taliban only by degree.
The Liars
for Jesus (LFJ) make
the laughable and bogus assertion
that it ain't about religion, and
certainly not about any specific religion,
but that they are merely a set of
principles which (a) are the foundation
of our legal system, and (b) clearly
delineate between right and wrong.
As anyone who can read can see, the
first four commandments have to do only with
proper worship of the alleged
xian deity. That is clearly specific to xianity
and is obviously in conflict with
Constitutional prohibitions regarding
religious establishment. The first
eight commandments call for death
for any infraction. Only one of those
ever carries a death penalty today
in this country. Six of the eight
Death Commandments are utterly ignored,
at least insofar as they ever evoke
anything other than a stern look. |
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* Since
I wrote this, the Supreme Court, in a display of judicial cowardice,
fell backwards into the correct response in the Moore case:
they opted not to hear the case, effectively killing it and
permanently removing the xian display from the Alabama Supreme
Court Building. And the zealot Chief Justice of Alabama has
been removed from the bench. |
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Rick's 11  Don't be a fucking idiot.Do the right thing.
Follow
the Golden Rule.Don't
kill anyone.Don't
take what isn't yours.Be
scrupulously fair.Practice
infinite patience. Replace
your divots.Don't
walk into the room and change the channel.Don't
show your dick in public.Never
bet money you don't have when you owe it to your ex-girlfriend who's
a stripper. (Cheech Marin - Tin Cup) |
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| ©The Assertive Atheist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Constitution is based on the 10Cs ?
I don't fucking think so.
A simple Google search will turn up tons of xian websites which flatly state that our Constitution and the laws of society are based on the 10 Commandments. This is generally repeated in the press with no critical commentary.
I mean, have they read the 10Cs?
Let us run a quick test and, rather than saying
what IS in the Constitution, let us look at what is NOT
mentioned:
- God
- Jesus
- The sabbath
- Graven images
- Killing
- Stealing
- Adultery
- Bratty kids
- Lying
- Coveting
- Christian Nation
Religion is mentioned twice: Once in Article 6 stating that
there can never be a religious test for public office;
The second mention is in the 1st Amendment in the Establishment
clause which clearly dictates that there can be no official
religion in the U.S., and, solidifies the Constitution
as the purely secular framework for the administration
of government.
As far as our Societal laws, the claims
of the xians are again demonstrably false.
The first 4 Cs command the worship of the xian deity under
threat of death. These are not the law of this land and could
not be more of a contradiction with the 1st Amendment.
Some of the others - adultery, lying, and disrespectful children
- are not even matters for law enforcement in most cases.
These are typically ignored - at least they don't require
a death penalty.
Killing and stealing are the only 2 of the 10Cs which we still
properly prosecute people for. But as stated elsewhere in
this essay, prohibitions against these activities far predate
the 10Cs and have always been good solid Humanist principles.