One thing I'd also mention is that the Ten Commandments are a tribal expression. "This is the commandment of the God who delivered us, he's mad as hell, have no gods before him, etc." These 21st c. secular values, if you will, are far more reflective of what we actually know at this point in our evolution.
I mean, I've never understood why God doesn't just appear in the sky and say, "Here's what I want you jerks to do. . ." if it's that important!
Reminds me that I never got around to reading The Good Book. I've read parts of it and have seen excerpts, but never cared to sit down and read it.
Whatever you want to call them, The Secular Commandments or Observations or whatever are at least a reminder of the extent to which the Ten Commandments are applicable to an ancient culture very far removed from us today.
And that's what's quite jarring actually. Yes, it's a silly thing to try and better, but so what if people try? Why sneer at it, given the fact that the Ten Commandments are split into those designed to massage a godly ego (including parental honour) and the rest are self evident?
Yeah, and whoever and whenever Moses was, if he indeed was, WHY did God pull him aside and tell him what to tell everyone else? In other words, what made him right and all the cultures and their stories wrong?
I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Isn't that the basic question one might ask when looking at any religion at any point? What context are you using? Moses was "right" because he was speaking to the Israelites, whose God he represented, and so on. Other cultures and religions were obviously wrong because they didn't worship the Israelites' God.
Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. So, assigning some higher or remotely absolute authority to it for all time is a BIG problem.
3. The scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding the natural world.
I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me.
You're obviously forcing square pegs into round holes.
The scientific method explains nature based on what is found in nature (i.e., Newton). Not the imagination. And that's why the scientific method works. That's how we explained retrograde motion, to name one thing.
Analogies are never exact. The first commandment of the Decalogue calls for holding God in primary reverence while the third commandment of this set calls for placing science in that position.
Yeah, I certainly accept that.
I'm just very leery of "science is a religion, atheism is a religion, etc." If that's the case, then ideas and philosophies are also religions. Which demystifies religion, actually!
