We all know about the 10 Commandments, but what are their implications? How should they govern our lives?
The 10 Commandments were apparently given to Moses by God directly on stone tablets (again, since Moses broke the first set out of anger). Do we still have that ONLY document written directly by the creator of the universe? No. You would think that such document would be guarded by angels of doom or at least by a magical protection spell. But no we lost it, or God allowed for it to be lost.
We have to figure out which versions of the 10 Commandments we are taking about as there are 2 lists (Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5) and 3 versions (http://www.positiveatheism.org/crt/whichcom.htm). We also have to realize that there are not 10, but 613 commandments in the Torah (Old Testament for Christians).
If we take the list given in Exodus 20:1-17:
1. “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
Loophole: It’s the god of the Jewish people. Might not be the god of the rest of humanity.
2. You shall have no other gods before[a] me
Loophole: Except for the other 2 Gods that Christian introduced later (Jesus and the Holy Spirit). That commandment can mean that we can have other gods, but that Yahweh has to be First God. It also means that other gods exist. If it meant to only have Yahweh and that other gods don’t exist, it would have said: “I am the only God that exist”.
3. “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Meaning: This one is loaded.
God will punish you for not loving him.
He will also punish your kids and your grand-kids and maybe your great-grand-kids (they are not sure where it stops).
God has human feelings that you can hurt
God needs your undivided attention or he fill punish you.
God is jealous. he feels threatened by attention given to some other gods or some other objects.
4. “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”
Loophole: Does not say what is “fair use”. Does it mean people who say “Oh my god” will go to hell?
5. “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
Comment: It does say in the Bible that the punishment for working on the Sabbath is death. Do you really have to kill people who work on the week-end or does the Bible is leaving it up to you?
5. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.”
Comment: It does not say HOW to honor our parents. Does it involve respect? Politeness? Animal sacrifices?
6. “You shall not murder.”
Loophole: Looking at the number of people who “support our troops”, this one could means “don’t kill, but it’s ok to encourage others to kill for us.”
7. “You shall not commit adultery.”
8. “You shall not steal.”
Loophole: Is it stealing when you take a picture or shoot a movie? What about scanning a photo or a book? Stealing means to deprive someone of something. When you make a copy of something while leaving the original there, you don’t deprive the person of something. So pirating movies, books, music, software and other digital content wouldn’t fall under that prohibition. The excuse that the law was giving 3000 year before the invention of digital media is not valid, since it,s supposed to have been given by the creator of the universe who can see in he future.
9. “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.”
Loophole: This is against a very specific type of lie, not a prohibition against lies, misdirection, partial truth, propaganda, and other types of misrepresentation.
10. “You shall not covet your neighbors house. You shall not covet your neighbors wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor
Consequence: Our economy would collapse. The basis of our economy lies in the fact that we want to acquire things.
Loophole: Taken literally though, this commandment can apply only to what your neighbor has, not what total strangers from other countries have.