Personal Blogs

I'm actually going to be serious with my blog I hope I don't do this often. I may also offend many people. It is not my wish, I just think society has evolved since about 3-4000 years ago and I am using this blog to get my thoughts across. Of course you can disagree and to not quote Voltaire, 'I am offended by everything you say, but I will damn well fight for the right for you to say it.' Who actually said that? I think it was a mate.

So here we go.

I have heard many times even from Agnostics and Atheists that one good thing about Judaism/Christianity/Islam is the 10 Commandments. It is the basis of law and order in the UK, you can't argue against these basic principles. I even heard it from a very intelligent person in my tutor group, which I started making my point but to be honest it did not add anything to the discussion on Plato. In a way they are right it is the basic law of many countries, however it is also the worse set of laws ever to be recorded in Human history.

Why? Firstly according to the Old Testament this is the rules laid down by God. A being who created the universe in 6 days. He is omnipotent and omniscience yet makes a bunch of rules which are vague and open to interpretation. I am going to go through each one and give my objection. But I have to say these ten rules are not all bad. I just prefer the FSM's 8 I'd rather you didn'ts and even they have flaws!

First of all we need a description of moral. I'm not going into the Socrates argument. It would take a lifetime!!!! So I'm going for the Oxford English Dictionary. Which is.....

principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour: the matter boiled down to simple morality: innocent prisoners ought to be freed

• [count noun] a particular system of values and principles of conduct: a bourgeois morality

• the extent to which an action is right or wrong: the issue of the morality of the possession of nuclear weapons

So.

1 'You shall have no other gods before Me.'

First of all does YHWH know that there are other gods, maybe he is no more important than Bacchus? Either way on a moral level it doesn't matter, except for a paranoid deity.

2 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.'

Jealousy???? for an omnipotent and omniscience being this surely is an embarrassment. Are you telling me he is as vain as Simon Cowell? Again, not immoral.

3 'You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.'

Now this can have two meanings. If you promise an oath to your sister/brother/friend/ally etc and you break that promise, morally probably a no no. If it is just to say Jesus H Christ, then Blasphemy is a victimless crime. Also why does YHWH, Christ or Mohammed need a blasphemy law? Surely any blasphemer will burn in Hell for eternity, why should God need a law in the UK?

4 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy Six days you shall labour and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.'

Great to get a day off and I think that it would be nice if we had one day a week where capitalism didn't win! I mean for Odin's sake why do we need shops opening 24/7...nearly. I am disheartened by people who get upset because for one or two days a year nothing is open! Get over it! Two days a year, shops are closed and yet people act as if there is going to be a Nuclear War, makes me think 'maybe we haven't evolved that much and our extinction is close.' Still nothing moral.

5 “Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

This isn't a bad idea, but what if your mother was an alcoholic/junkie that used you to steal money or a Father that treat you and your Mum as a punching bag? I think Honour needs to be earned rather than expected.

6 'You shall not murder.'

Again as a rule of thumb a very good idea however, what if someone was trying to kill your love ones and you have no choice? Or if you were in a position of either them or you? This statement by 'god' is too sweeping. Let's be perfectly honest, religion haven't exactly stuck to this commandment.

7 'You shall not commit adultery.'

I have no objections to this. I admit, if I found out my wife was unfaithful I would be devastated. However, what if the man beat the women, or completely ignored her/treat her like a slave and she found someone who treat her with respect. Would we condemn the woman?

8 'You shall not steal.'

Again good rule, but what if your children are dying of starvation. Let's admit it we love the story of Robin Hood, 'Rob the rich to feed the poor'. The church has done this for thousands of years and not for moral reasons.

9 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.'

Lying......... the church..... I rest my case. Lying for Jesus is still lying. According to Pope Benedict condoms don't prevent the spread of Aids they are conducive in the spread of Aids. Never mind how he covered up the Child rape scandal the Catholic Church is trying desperately to deny and blame on all things Secularism??!!??

But again is lying always wrong or indeed immoral? No, does anyone condemn the Europeans of all religions that lied to the Gestapo or SS about Jews they may have been hiding? They are heroes in my opinion, yet they disobeyed the 9^th commandment, ironically created by the Jewish god.

10 'You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.'

Surely in the Western Christian world coveting is what makes the world go round! This capitalism! How many Rich persons tell us we should believe in god. The Christian/Muslim/Jewish church is probably richer than most companies! Also I am actually offended by the fact my wife seems to be seen as my property. She is not!

There is one thing that I can't ever justify and maybe a god should have mentioned and that is 'Thou shall not Rape.' Oh hang on there is look at Deuteronomy 22:28. Anyone does that to my girls, I don't want your money..... I want your head on the mantelpiece with your Balls stuffed in your mouth!!

Finally the other thing I don't understand is if all morality is based on the tablets of Moses, then does that mean every society before this, committed all of the above immoral? This includes any civilisation that never heard of Moses or Jesus. The Native Americans, Aborigines, Asians, etc etc.

Again I would like comments, this is me being honest but I believe this blog will be hated, however don't stop reading because overall I like to write nostalgic rubbish that might be humorous. It's just occasionally someone makes a comment that I react to like a bull to a red flag.