Many people believe the Ten Commandments are a universal moral guide to be displayed in classrooms and courthouses. But universal morality can't come from a religion, because no religion is universally practiced. Many people learn about morality from their religion, which may explain why they think morality depends on religion. But people can be moral without believing in a higher power, and a moral guide that everyone knows and accepts serves societies better than one known and accepted only by followers of a particular religion.
To provide such a guide, I formulated 10 new commandments more suitable for display than the biblical version:
1. Do not kill.
2. Do not cause pain.
3. Do not disable.
4. Do not deprive of freedom.
5. Do not deprive of pleasure.
6. Do not deceive.
7. Keep your promises.
8. Do not cheat.
9. Obey the law.
10. Do your duty (i.e., what is required by your job, social role, or special circumstances).
Breaking the first five rules automatically results in someone being harmed. Breaking the second five increases the chances of someone being harmed. It isn't always immoral to break one of these rules; you may kill in self-defense or lie to save an innocent life. But you should break a rule only if you would be willing to allow everyone to beak the rull in the same circumstances. Particular religions may prohibit gay sex, or the use of contraceptives, for example, but these acts do not harm anyone and so are not immoral. Several biblical commandments, such as not working on the Sabbath or not bowing down to graven images, have nothing to do with being moral; they do not prohibit behavior that harms other people. The Ten Commandments not only don't prohibit slavery, they explicitly accept it. The commandment not to covet thy neighbor's wife continues by proscribing coveting thy neighbor's slaves. The English translation is "servant," "manservant" or "maidservant", but in the context of Hebrew or Aramaic clearly means slave. One reason behind the commandment against work on the Sabbath is "so thy slaves shall rest as well as thou." Although this commandment requires more humane treatment of slaves, slavery--no matter how humane--has no place in a universal moral code.
Another problem with taking the Ten Commandments as moral law is that it suggests people will behave morally only if threatened with punishment. That reflects a sophomoric view that no one ever acts contrary to his or her own self-interest for the benefit of others. But caring people often make sacrifices to help others without thinking about themselves at all.
If you believe that morality can arise only out of religion, then you must also believe that whatever your religion tells you to do is the moral thing to do. That is a dangerous view indeed.
Gets is a professor of philosophy at Dartmouth College and the author of Common Morality: Deciding What to Do.
I know it basically treads the same ground that Mike and George Carlin have already covered, but I thought it was worth sharing anyway.
6, 7 and 8 are pretty similar. Breaking promises and cheating are a form of deception.
"everytime a person is born the Earth weighs just a little more."--DMJ on StarTrek.com
"You see now you are using your thinking and that is not a good thing!" DMJay on StarTrek.com
"Watching Sarli argue with Vympel, Stas, Schatten and the others is as bizarre as the idea of the 40-year-old Virgin telling Hugh Hefner that Hef knows nothing about pussy, and that he is the expert."--Elfdart
Darth Servo wrote:6, 7 and 8 are pretty similar. Breaking promises and cheating are a form of deception.
Not necessarily similar, though. Someone can break a promise unintentionally, such as promising to be somewhere by x time but factors like traffic james, or storms that block the roads wind up making them late.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
General Zod wrote:
Not necessarily similar, though. Someone can break a promise unintentionally, such as promising to be somewhere by x time but factors like traffic james, or storms that block the roads wind up making them late.
The same kind of point could be made for most if not all of those commandments. I think we can safely assume that the intent behind them is that you shouldn't willingly/knowingly do it.
'Next time I let Superman take charge, just hit me. Real hard.'
'You're a princess from a society of immortal warriors. I'm a rich kid with issues. Lots of issues.'
'No. No dating for the Batman. It might cut into your brooding time.'
'Tactically we have multiple objectives. So we need to split into teams.'-'Dibs on the Amazon!'
'Hey, we both have a Martian's phone number on our speed dial. I think I deserve the benefit of the doubt.'
'You know, for a guy with like 50 different kinds of vision, you sure are blind.'
General Zod wrote:
Not necessarily similar, though. Someone can break a promise unintentionally, such as promising to be somewhere by x time but factors like traffic james, or storms that block the roads wind up making them late.
The same kind of point could be made for most if not all of those commandments. I think we can safely assume that the intent behind them is that you shouldn't willingly/knowingly do it.
My point was that it wasn't necessarily a form of deceit if it wasn't intentional.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
Darth Servo wrote:6, 7 and 8 are pretty similar. Breaking promises and cheating are a form of deception.
There are also repititions like this in the biblical commandments, mostly in respect to honoring god and stuff. In fact, the first four could probably be summed up in one.
Ditto. As well, the Pagan Solon's commandments are much better than those of Moses.
If The Infinity Program were not a forum, it would be a pie-in-the-sky project. “Faith is both the prison and the open hand.”— Vienna Teng, "Augustine."
Darth Wong wrote:Ten commandments are way too many. Here's a simpler list:
Seek to prevent misery and suffering for others.
Seek pleasure and happiness for yourself.
Use logic to determine how to achieve #1 and #2.
Keep your word, and uphold the truth.
Send $500 via Paypal to Michael Wong
See, it's a fairly simple list. Only 5 requirements for a complete moral system.
Paypal? Oh, come on, you know that Paypal's not reliable. At least tell people to mail you a check so they don't risk Paypal just taking the money and having to send you an extra $500.
"I want to mow down a bunch of motherfuckers with absurdly large weapons and relative impunity - preferably in and around a skyscraper. Then I want to fight a grim battle against the unlikely duo of the Terminator and Robocop. The last level should involve (but not be limited to) multiple robo-Hitlers and a gorillasaurus rex."--Uraniun235 on his ideal FPS game
"The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant compared to the power of the Force."--Darth Vader
10. Do your duty (i.e., what is required by your job, social role, or special circumstances).
So be a an obedient little drone and always follow orders?
Only in someone's wet dream with a benevolent, humanity not capable of genocide, slaughters, Nazi's, Auschwitz, Rwanda, Siberia etc;.
4. Do not deprive of freedom. 5. Do not deprive of pleasure.
So no spanking the kids
Send $500 via Paypal to Michael Wong
Why not 10% of all my income as tribute, that would be more given a few years
Photography Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Why not 10% of all my income as tribute, that would be more given a few years
That would make him worse than the Catholic church. The man may be a Sith Lord who rules the board with an iron fist and advocates people joining the evil Galactic Emperor, but he has some standards.
"I want to mow down a bunch of motherfuckers with absurdly large weapons and relative impunity - preferably in and around a skyscraper. Then I want to fight a grim battle against the unlikely duo of the Terminator and Robocop. The last level should involve (but not be limited to) multiple robo-Hitlers and a gorillasaurus rex."--Uraniun235 on his ideal FPS game
"The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant compared to the power of the Force."--Darth Vader
Darth Servo wrote:6, 7 and 8 are pretty similar. Breaking promises and cheating are a form of deception.
Not necessarily similar, though. Someone can break a promise unintentionally, such as promising to be somewhere by x time but factors like traffic james, or storms that block the roads wind up making them late.
Thats an accident. Accidents are not immoral unless it was through negligence.
"everytime a person is born the Earth weighs just a little more."--DMJ on StarTrek.com
"You see now you are using your thinking and that is not a good thing!" DMJay on StarTrek.com
"Watching Sarli argue with Vympel, Stas, Schatten and the others is as bizarre as the idea of the 40-year-old Virgin telling Hugh Hefner that Hef knows nothing about pussy, and that he is the expert."--Elfdart
4. Do not deprive of freedom. 5. Do not deprive of pleasure.
So no spanking the kids
The only thing worse than depriving kids of absolute freedom, is kids having absolute freedom.
They say, "the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots." I suppose it never occurred to them that they are the tyrants, not the patriots. Those weapons are not being used to fight some kind of tyranny; they are bringing them to an event where people are getting together to talk. -Mike Wong
But as far as board culture in general, I do think that young male overaggression is a contributing factor to the general atmosphere of hostility. It's not SOS and the Mess throwing hand grenades all over the forum- Red
Darth Wong wrote:Ten commandments are way too many. Here's a simpler list:
Seek to prevent misery and suffering for others.
Seek pleasure and happiness for yourself.
Use logic to determine how to achieve #1 and #2.
Keep your word, and uphold the truth.
Send $500 via Paypal to Michael Wong
See, it's a fairly simple list. Only 5 requirements for a complete moral system.
What if I send $5? Is that enough for me to be merely amoral, and not immoral?
Mayabird is my girlfriend
Justice League:BotM:MM:SDnet City Watch:Cybertron's Finest "Well then, science is bullshit. "
-revprez, with yet another brilliant rebuttal.
Darth Wong wrote:Ten commandments are way too many. Here's a simpler list:
Seek to prevent misery and suffering for others.
Seek pleasure and happiness for yourself.
Use logic to determine how to achieve #1 and #2.
Keep your word, and uphold the truth.
Send $500 via Paypal to Michael Wong
See, it's a fairly simple list. Only 5 requirements for a complete moral system.
What if I send $5? Is that enough for me to be merely amoral, and not immoral?
That makes you approximately 1% moral, but you are still 99% immoral.
Immoral by uptight puritan standards, or by your standards?
Mayabird is my girlfriend
Justice League:BotM:MM:SDnet City Watch:Cybertron's Finest "Well then, science is bullshit. "
-revprez, with yet another brilliant rebuttal.
1. Do whatever you can to prevent injustice from being done to anyone.
On the other hand, what's with number eight? I would expect Playboy would condone adultery, or am I gravely underestimating their sanity?
10. Do your duty (i.e., what is required by your job, social role, or special circumstances).
So be a an obedient little drone and always follow orders?
Only in someone's wet dream with a benevolent, humanity not capable of genocide, slaughters, Nazi's, Auschwitz, Rwanda, Siberia etc;.
From just the commandment itself and not the explanation text, it might be interpreted that opposing such things is part of 'your duty'. Then again probably not.
Darth Wong wrote:If the Church did driver training, they would try to get seatbelts outlawed because they aren't 100% effective in preventing fatalities in high-speed car crashes, then they would tell people that driving fast is a sin and chalk up the skyrocketing death toll to God's will. And homosexuals, because homosexuals drive fast.
Peptuck wrote:
I don't think magical Borg adaptation can respond effectively to getting punched by a planet.
10. Do your duty (i.e., what is required by your job, social role, or special circumstances).
So be a an obedient little drone and always follow orders?
Only in someone's wet dream with a benevolent, humanity not capable of genocide, slaughters, Nazi's, Auschwitz, Rwanda, Siberia etc;.
Just like the real ten commandments, they're prioritized in order of descending importance. (Hence, murdering heretics doesn't violate the ten commandments) Number ten is overriden by all those above it.
Superior Moderator - BotB - HAB [Drill Instructor]-Writer- Stardestroyer.net's resident Star-God.
"We believe in the systematic understanding of the physical world through observation and experimentation, argument and debate and most of all freedom of will." ~ Stargate: The Ark of Truth
Darth Wong wrote:Ten commandments are way too many. Here's a simpler list:
Seek to prevent misery and suffering for others.
Seek pleasure and happiness for yourself.
Use logic to determine how to achieve #1 and #2.
Keep your word, and uphold the truth.
Send $500 via Paypal to Michael Wong
See, it's a fairly simple list. Only 5 requirements for a complete moral system.
What if I send $5? Is that enough for me to be merely amoral, and not immoral?
That makes you approximately 1% moral, but you are still 99% immoral.
Can we set up a payment plan? Like $5 a month for 100 months or something of that sort? And is this USD or CAD?
I used to think that it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe. ~Marcus Cole, Babylon 5
The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were and ask "why not?" ~John F Kennedy Jr, 1963
1. Seek not to harm human* life, nor to allow it to come to harm through inaction.
*posessing a modicum of sapience and the ability to feel pain. Applicability of this commandment decreases with the decrease of the above requirements. This offer not fully applicable to breakers of the commandment.
I don't know if my definition of "human" is complete, but I do know that every crime is covered under this, since to be a real crime, it must create victims or allow for the victimization of people through negligence.
"If one needed proof that a guitar was more than wood and string, that a song was more than notes and words, and that a man could be more than a name and a few faded pictures, then Robert Johnson’s recordings were all one could ask for."
1. Seek not to harm human* life, nor to allow it to come to harm through inaction.
*posessing a modicum of sapience and the ability to feel pain. Applicability of this commandment decreases with the decrease of the above requirements. This offer not fully applicable to breakers of the commandment.
Double bah, you forgot the zennoth law .
Immoral by uptight puritan standards, or by your standards?
you're asking if the leader of a "faith " has differnet standards of morality for other'c compared to those he has written.
yoy should send 5,0000 rs to cleanse thinself of your impurity child
Photography Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Base Delta Zero wrote:On the other hand, what's with number eight? I would expect Playboy would condone adultery, or am I gravely underestimating their sanity?
1) This was submitted by someone who doesn't work for Playboy.
2) Playboy advocates having lots of sex, both within and without the bounds of marriage. It does not advocate emotionally hurting your spouse by cheating on him/her. Read this a couple of times to be sure you understand the subtle differences.
Assuming that, because Playboy advocates one "immoral" behaviour (i.e. sex), it must therefore be entirely "immoral" itself, and thus in favour of all immoral behaviour (emotional cruelty), is just sloppy thinking, the kind indulged in by fundies.
