The Ten Commandments = Irrelevant
Many people say quite factually that without the Ten Commandments we couldn’t be moral. These people are obviously ill informed, to put it politely. Others may concede that we could be moral apart from the Bible, but that the Ten Commandments are still good rules to live by. I doubt that very much. One only need read them to know that they mostly devalue women to the status of property and tell you not to steal your neighbors goods, or boil a baby goat alive in its mother’s milk, oh, and not to worship other gods. These don’t exactly improve a person’s morality, and besides, such a list is unwarranted if common sense can handle the rest. In fact, I think George Carlin said it best.
But the question remains, are the Ten Commandments even logical? Can a rational person buy into the premise of these rules if they feel there may be merit to them, perhaps, great wisdom hidden in them somewhere?
First of all, I should point out that there isn’t just one list. The Bible has three different Ten Commandments lists. This is a Biblical discrepancy, since God only wrote the list TWICE, but since Moses destroyed the first list in a maniacal rage, according to the story there can technically only be one surviving list. So three different lists is problematic for believers. Remember now, Orthodox Jews don’t say people wrote the Torah, they believe God wrote it via divine dictation! Christians say the same about the New Testament (but that argument has been put to rest whether or not Christians want to admit it). So we have a problem involving discrepant lists, since apparently an all perfect God got the divine laws, his own laws, wrong TWICE. That's right, God forgot about the first list, and had to correct himself not once but two times. Goodness gracious, God made another blunder... and another!
First of all, I should point out that there isn’t just one list. The Bible has three different Ten Commandments lists. This is a Biblical discrepancy, since God only wrote the list TWICE, but since Moses destroyed the first list in a maniacal rage, according to the story there can technically only be one surviving list. So three different lists is problematic for believers. Remember now, Orthodox Jews don’t say people wrote the Torah, they believe God wrote it via divine dictation! Christians say the same about the New Testament (but that argument has been put to rest whether or not Christians want to admit it). So we have a problem involving discrepant lists, since apparently an all perfect God got the divine laws, his own laws, wrong TWICE. That's right, God forgot about the first list, and had to correct himself not once but two times. Goodness gracious, God made another blunder... and another!
Peculiar as it all is, let’s ignore this for now. Let us focus on a couple of the commandments themselves, as they are to be the perfect law of the perfect God. As such, we should expect them to be flawlessly reasonable, beneficial, and deeply meaningful to everyone.
Let’s use the Exodus 20:2-17 list for simplicity sake, and we’ll ignore the discrepant variant lists found in Deuteronomy 5:6-21 and Exodus 34:11-27 for now.
The 4th commandment is: to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. Sounds simple enough, but don’t only Jews practice the Sabbath? What were the Chinese doing for centuries before there were any Jews for God to talk to? Well, in actuality the Chinese were busy reading and writing, creating poetry, breading dogs, brewing tea, inventing gun powder and fireworks, and numerous other things advanced civilizations are known to do. Obviously God thought that the Chinese were getting along just fine, because he didn’t give them any lists or words to help improve them.
So now let us look at the 6th commandment, which is: though shall not kill. Good to hear it. But now, this seems to me to be, again, applicable only to Jews on Jews. For the Jews are commanded by God *multiple times throughout the Bible to kill entire nations, races of people, murder women and children, and to rape, pillage, and plunder. Oh, and they needlessly sacrifice animals to God, a bloody symbolic ritual of offering penitence in the form of slaughtered flesh, as commanded by God, to be cleansed of sin and free of punishment. This sort of negates the shall not kill part. It seems that in the good olden days Jews were allowed to kill almost anything that walked or breathed. So maybe God meant only that Jews shouldn't kill other Jews?
Although, as perplexing as all this sounds, we aren’t out of the thick of it yet. For what is the punishment for picking up sticks on the Sabbath? Numbers 15:33-36 states quite emphatically that God said to Moses that the punishment for picking up sticks on the Sabbath is inescapable death! Low and behold, the Jews find another Jew doing just that and they take him to Moses, who consults with God, and God demands they murder the unholy fiend! And they do! Oops, God did it again, blunder!
Are you starting to get a headache yet?
Thou shall not kill, yet those who break the Sabbath must be killed. This is not just a big discrepancy; it is an all out contradiction made by God himself! Seriously, are we to believe that a perfect being makes such a fallible and (suspiciously) human mistakes such as this? Are you seeing a pattern here? I know I am.
Now let’s suppose we plugged this information into a computer and asked it to solve the problem for us. Well, I think you have already guessed what is likely to happen, CYCLIC ERROR, CTRL Alt Delete, REBOOT, CYCLIC ERROR, DOES NOT COMPUTE... DOES NOT COMPUTE... and so on until sparks are flying out and smoke is filling the room as your computer goes up in flames. Just an atheist’s hypothesis, but maybe this is where God went? He self destructed three thousand years ago due to his own inadequacy and irascible demands. After all, a perfect being couldn’t be so imperfect, so downright irrational, could he? If so, then he’s not God. And if not, then the God of the Bible is not God.
Thou shall not kill, yet those who break the Sabbath must be killed. This is not just a big discrepancy; it is an all out contradiction made by God himself! Seriously, are we to believe that a perfect being makes such a fallible and (suspiciously) human mistakes such as this? Are you seeing a pattern here? I know I am.
Now let’s suppose we plugged this information into a computer and asked it to solve the problem for us. Well, I think you have already guessed what is likely to happen, CYCLIC ERROR, CTRL Alt Delete, REBOOT, CYCLIC ERROR, DOES NOT COMPUTE... DOES NOT COMPUTE... and so on until sparks are flying out and smoke is filling the room as your computer goes up in flames. Just an atheist’s hypothesis, but maybe this is where God went? He self destructed three thousand years ago due to his own inadequacy and irascible demands. After all, a perfect being couldn’t be so imperfect, so downright irrational, could he? If so, then he’s not God. And if not, then the God of the Bible is not God.
Therefore, in light of this evidence, I suggest that the Ten Commandments aren’t just irrelevant, but they are truly nonsensical. And furthermore, if you have understood the argument, that the only logical option we are left with is that imperfect men wrote the Bible, and as a consequence, the Bible contains flawed and irreconcilable information so stupendous, so stupefying, that it would likely be able to make the Starship Enterprise self destruct. In summary, when it comes to the Ten Commandments of the Bible, we have no better evidence of a logic FAIL than this.
T-Vick
ReplyDeleteThe Chinese? The 10 commandments weren't given to the Chinese. They were given to the Nation of Israel and to them only. God wanted his people to be set apart from the rest of the world.
Then the Jews who were looked at different would become a kingdom of Priests. To show how to live righteously until the coming of the Messiah.
When the Messiah came to man, that put an end to the law. Gal. 3:23-25 "Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith".
Now that faith has arrived, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.
Why are their 10 commandments? Why are their 10 plagues? In Biblical numerology the number 10 simply means complete. There were actually over 600 laws, and there was more than 10 false gods as well. It didn't have to be 10. Jesus says in the NT you can hang all the laws on these 2, love God with all your heart and love others as yourself. Why? Well if you love God with all your hearts the first 4 commandments shouldn't be to hard. And if you love your neighbor as yourself the last 6 shouldn't be to hard.
Having said that, they are hard to follow, that's another reason they were given to us. To reveal we can't live up to God's holiness. These 10 help us realize our need for a Savior.
Remember when Christ said He came to fulfill the law, not abolish it well that's exactly what he did. He didn't abolish it, he fulfilled it.
And now we are no longer under the law. We are under Grace. Does that mean Christians can go out and sin? I'll let God figure all that out, but the Apostle Paul says "God forbid" to go on sinning. And I agree with Paul.
Although parts of George's act was funny, even he picks and chooses which ones are OK or not. Whatever man, whatever.
Thanks for taking the time out to post on my blog. Happy New Year. feeno
Feeno-
ReplyDeleteGeorge Carlin's reductionist view of the Ten Commandments if funny on the intellectual level, I think, because he points out the fallacy of the commandments being "moral" at all.
In fact, his comment that they are dissimilar, i.e. being part of the "same virtue" is common sense. It just baffles me why most believers can't see it. If you read the Tao, or the Analects, or some of the ancient Buddhist philosophers, or Kant, or any of the Greek stoics, I think you'll find a much more sophisticated list which touches upon more of the virtues of human decency and morality then the big Ten do. And that just makes it seem even more likely that man wrote the Bible!
So as long as they are part of the same overall idea, it doesn't matter so much which ones you pick and choose. My point was, if more than two or three reflect the same virtue, or command, that's a redundancy. A perfect God wouldn't make such a simple repetitive mistake if his goal was to set for his law clearly and precisely.
My other point was that a perfect God could *not contradict his own perfect law, and God does just that multiple times. This makes his Commandments neither important or worth following.
And my third point was, if there is to be a chosen race, there were better options available. If the Jews and the tribes of Israel needed moral guides because they were so bad, then fine. But it sort of shows that the God of the Bible is only a desert dwelling God, and part of the discrepancies I point to are mainly because the desert dwelling people were not educated (like the Chinese) and so their written works, their religious doctrines and holy books, reflect this simple minded bronze aged mentality, and also explains the logical contradictions and errors wrought throughout the text.
Thanks for dropping by--as always!