Ancient Brilliance

I wonder how many people realize that modern society and law are based on the ancient law of Moses? Of which the essentials were boiled down to the 10 commandments.

Now for sake of argument, let's say that Moses wrote them by himself without God's help. (although as a Christian, I tend to believe otherwise).

He then was the most brilliant leader in world history, at least as far as we know.

Because the 10 commandments is a social code of behavior developed to bring order to a very large body of ethnic Jews who suddenly found themselves free in the desert and without any sort of government structure.

So where's the brilliance, you ask? Let me show you:
(paraphrasing)

1. Have no other gods before me: They lived in Egypt, where there were all sorts of gods. Imagine the conflicts that might have caused between people. One God, that's it. Brilliant.

2. No graven images: Don't waste your gold and other precious materials making stupid gods to try to win their favor. Very good idea for a bunch of people wandering the desert with limited resources.

3. Don't take God's name in vain: Watch your mouth. Don't curse or disrespect God. Foul language is offensive in general, but disrespecting God is the worst.

4. Remember the Sabbath and Keep it Holy: Take a day off every week to rest and gather together for nice peaceful worship. Great for building a unified community. And makes sure everybody, even slaves, get a day off once a week.

5. Honor your father and mother: 'nuff said. What an excellent commandment, if I may say so.

6. Don't Murder: Duh. Strange thing, I get the idea these days it's more like, "don't murder anybody unless they are a total creep." Personally I tend to believe this is a pretty good commandment.

7. Don't commit adultery: Why is this a good commandment? Our society today has a particular problem with this one, because people don't like to be told what to do in this area. But think about it this way: what happens when a man or woman has sex with someone not his or her husband or wife? For starters, they break up their families. The distraught spouse might become suicidal or homicidal or both. They pass around all sorts of horrible diseases. You see, it's actually a very civilized rule.

8. Don't Steal: Seems obvious, but I notice people chip away at this one too. For example, some might find Robin Hood to be virtuous, even though he clearly violated this commandment. Lots of people steal stuff from their parents, siblings, or employers just because they can, or because they make up silly rationalizations for why it's not really "stealing". Bottom line, people going around stealing other people's stuff isn't a very good way to keep a stable society.

9. Don't Lie: It's sad that most people seem to have forgotten this one. Imagine, if like in the Jim Carrey movie nobody was able to tell a lie. It's OK to say nothing if the truth would hurt somebody, but generally speaking, little lies lead to bigger and bigger lies and then, well, it's just a mess.

10. Don't be jealous: Don't be a Democrat (just kidding, sort of). Don't spend all your time looking at somebody who has stuff you don't and thinking you are more deserving of all that stuff than he or she. It also mentions this about the other guy's wife (or woman's husband), which could lead to a violation of #7.

You see, I don't really understand the whole atheist hatred of people like me who take these rules seriously. Because, whether you want to follow the first three or not, they all really are extremely valuable for the building and maintenance of a stable and peaceful society. Not to mention good for everyone in general.

If more people just decided to go ahead and follow these rules for living, I can think of a whole host of social ills that would just go away. You know what I'm talking about - don't say you don't! Greatly reduced divorce, which in turn greatly reduces problem children that grow up to be problem adults who might do things like murder, steal, adulter (is that a verb?). Overall, better communication and unity, where people share common values, communicate better and focus more on God and others than themselves.

Want peace? Just follow the ten commandments and get 10 other people to do the same.

Ultimately most of these rules are hard to enforce. My reading of the context of the commandments is that they are meant to be internalized and followed by people out of free will. They're not rules designed to stop people from having fun, but to help people live full, happy, and peaceful lives.

Translating into morality, Jesus Christ himself said it best when he identified the two greatest commandments: Love God and Love One Another. See, if you internalize those two, the rest of the commandments are merely corollaries.

That's what morality means.