FIRST COMMANDMENT: I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me.
This commandment either formally acknowledges that
there are multiple gods or must be considered as propaganda designed to
manipulate followers (who are still allowed to believe in whatever other gods
they choose) to accept these commandments as primary law. In modern terms, this
would be considered as a grounding statement intended to provide an “authority
premise”. Examining this commandment as an authority premise, reveals that it
is only weakly supported requiring the follower to accept Moses’ testimony (as
subsequently transcribed into the book of Exodus – via an unsecured (hard to
validate) chain of custody – by individuals with debatable motives).
SECOND
COMMANDMENT: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of
them that love me, and keep my commandments.
This is a compound commandment that breaks down into don’t worship any other (presumably spiritual) entity and follow these rules. Personally, I would have lead with a “follow these rules statement” right after providing an authority basis because placing the focus upon graven images is of lower relevance because these are merely tools of worship as opposed to being worship. Clearly the act of misdirected worship must be the paramount concern because it is important to keep the peoples’ attention focused by staying on message.
An interesting aspect of the graven image portion
of this commandment is that it validates the concept of sympathetic magic, in
that worshiping through an object (graven image) can have or produce a reality
changing consequence is induced by the worshiper.
This commandment also offers a bit of a temper
tantrum, in that God is jealous and presently focused upon about a pattern of
generational hatred. The tantrum is reinforced via an expression of conditional
love by offering mercy to those who love God. Let’s call all of these clauses a
threat on the order of “follow the rules or else”, with the “or else” part left
undefined for the moment. The attitude expressed in this commandment violates
the “loving god” image that many have historically preached and represents an
extremely humanistic emotional attitude. If anything, I would have preferred a
more “clinical” or “matter of fact” tone here – more along the lines of behave
properly or you’ll be discarded as easily as I discard the bones of a fish
after the flesh has been consumed.
I really dislike the “present situation” approach
within a set of laws that are intended to guide behavior for the rest of
history; “fathers upon the children unto third and fourth generation of them
that hate me”. Living in the time that this was given it certainly has
emotional impact, but with millennia between the authorship and now, the
emotional impact is no more than a distraction or confirmation that people
having been “wrong thinking” for a very long time. To speak to a person’s heart
shouldn’t timeless principles be espoused and the intellect be engaged – as
opposed to taking the “you kids have been driving me crazy for the past four
generations!!!”
THIRD COMMANDMENT: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
I’m going to assume that everything after the
semicolon is poetry – because unless one does not understand what a commandment
is, breaking the rules is breaking the rules and the rule breaker is therefore
guilty of rule breaking.
I partially chalk this commandment up to something
along the lines of “Only call me when you really want my attention. It’s very
distracting when everyone is yelling my name just to emphasize or express an
elevated emotional state.” But even given this possible explanation; isn’t God
able to readily discern what a person is feeling and why they are yelling… It
would seem that ignoring pejorative or mindlessly ecstatic shouts of one’s name
would be a trivial matter to the point of not even being a consideration.
The other logical reason for this commandment would
be to prevent the “cheapening” of the name of God, in that using it for random
or inappropriate purposes tends to devalue the concepts behind the name… The
premise of this commandment has a valid psychological basis in that people can
be desensitized, contributing to the emergence of reduced gratitude and
reverence.
FOURTH
COMMANDMENT: Remember the sabbath day, to
keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh
day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou,
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy
cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore
the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Hallowed days? Or is it Holy days? Or is it
Holidays? Set aside time to worship in a measure of 1 to 6. The assumption
being that worship and work are somehow distinct. Or perhaps the point is to
substitute work for God in place of work for oneself or ones family.
Unfortunately as written I would argue that this is a practically impossible
commandment to keep, in that work is insufficiently defined. And even using the
most convoluted definition of work one could never achieve satisfactory adherence,
short of sleeping 24 hours every Sunday (as a form of worship).
The 1 to 6 ratio represents a bare minimum time for
a person to decompress and provides a rhythm to life… so from a practical point of
view there is utility in this rule that fails to meet the criteria of a divine
edict. Most certainly people are variable, being either more or less durable, and
requiring more or less time to retire from toil. So setting a hard and fast
rule such as this is probably too extreme. At most, this commandment should be
taken as a guideline.
And while we’re at it, why don’t these commandments
layout some specifics about the proper way to worship. Modern psychology
indicates that people who practice regular exercises of appreciation and
community service are generally happier and more able to support each other.
These are also modern tenants of many religions… It would seem that within the Ten
Commandments this would be the most logical place to provide rules around how
to exhibit these types of healthy behaviors.
FIFTH COMMANDMENT: Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
The word honor is the tricky bit here… most
interpretations tend to suggest that this means “obey” or at a bare minimum
support your parents. This is a nice idea, but why is it so specific, focusing
solely upon parents? What about grandparents, siblings, and children. It
clearly would have been better to direct believers to focus upon supporting a
strong family unit while guiding those with less experience and knowledge to
trust those with greater experience.
SIXTH COMMANDMENT: Thou shalt not kill.
OK – I don’t want to be in a situation where my
life is at risk, so this commandment makes sense. But since it isn’t explicitly
stated, could this be interpreted as a call for universal vegetarianism? Or
taking it even further, we can’t even eat living vegetables – instead we must
only consume carrion produced through non-human causes or dead vegetable
matter… but wait, what about bacteria??? There’s no way to avoid consuming and
killing these…
Perhaps I’m being lazy in my analysis, but given
the lack of further guidance we’re going to have to assume that this just applies
to people. So rewriting it; Thou shall not kill humans. Therefore no war, no
death sentence, and no murder… What about self defense, or what about cases
where non-life threatening but severely oppressive circumstances are inflicted
by a ruling power? Passivism… at all costs… As long as we all adhere to this it
works, otherwise we’re probably going to require a lot of forgiveness individually
or collectively at some point…
SEVENTH COMMANDMENT: Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Because adultery is the act of having sexual
relations with a person other than your spouse, there is a psychological basis
for the value of this law. The limbic system indiscriminately rewards sexual
activity creating a physiological emotional bond between sex partners.
Disallowing adultery is disallowing the creation of inappropriate anti-family
emotional bonds.
It is interesting that God is concerned about the
family again. The commandments would have flowed better with #5 and #7 immediately
adjacent to each other… I would also characterize this as a specific form of
“thou shall honor thy responsibilities”, in this case the responsibility having
been created via commitments made at during a wedding ceremony. It’s also a
type of theft (see commandment 8)…
EIGHTH COMMANDMENT: Thou shalt not steal.
Another “thou shall honor thy responsibilities”
commandment - because no one wants to be stolen from, especially in situations
of personal scarcity where taking from me is a threat to my family and a risk
to my ability to satisfy my obligations. In reality there are a huge number of
these types of rules that could be individually enumerated… apparently stealing
was a significant problem at the time this commandment was authored.
NINTH COMMANDMENT: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
I would argue that this is also a kind of theft
(see commandment 8)… where the lie is an attempt to deceive thus stealing trust
between individuals, having the long term effect of making lies acceptable, because
everyone does it… don’t they?
TENTH COMMANDMENT: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
If you managed to avoid coveting a neighbor’s wife,
you’ve gone a long way toward preventing the adultery option… Additionally, I
would argue that coveting is a prerequisite to theft (see commandment 8)…
because you’re very unlikely to steal if you’re not coveting that which is
“owned” by another.
This commandment only mentions that coveting of a
neighbor’s wife (e.g. is silent on coveting a neighbor’s husband)… this
commandment implicitly sanctions the ownership of wives by husbands, thus
placing women in the category of property. Additionally, the mention of coveting
servants, tells us that servants are also property either through indenture or
slavery. Broadly western society abhors the concept of a person owning a
person, but many espouse the divine validity of these commandments.
How can the selective (variable, pragmatic, and personally
convenient) application of the laws of God by the so called “devout” be reconciled
within a religious order? The reconciliation is either never done or is only
done when other egregious transgressions are uncovered.
Commandments
reformulated:
While not perfect, in my opinion these commandments
hang together significantly better that those of Exodus because these reflect a
nobler modern sense of equality and mutual respect while providing a timeless
set of principles that avoid an enumeration approach to sinfulness.
FIRST COMMANDMENT: I am God your creator; above all else worship
me by living in accordance with these commandments.
SECOND COMMANDMENT: Value life and treasure its capacity
for love and its ability to produce vital change in the world. Only take life
with clear purpose, meaning, and great reverence and humility in the recognition
that all shall pass through the transformations of eternity.
THIRD COMMANDMENT: Learn and respect the diversity of human
experience so that in knowing and accepting each other, all are empowered to
achieve their greatest potential in service to the destiny of mankind.
FOURTH COMMANDMENT: Faithfully and transparently honor your
responsibilities both explicit and implied; in service to your family, the community,
and the whole of mankind for all time.
FIFTH COMMANDMENT: Practice habits of personal and interpersonal
discipline that refresh the spirit through frequent honest reflection, sharing,
listening, continual study, generous service, and frequent overt acts of contrition,
forgiveness, bonding, gratitude, and love.
