10 commandments

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments

At school we used to play a game where we would try to come up with the best set of 10 rules to live by which most of us would agree to. The aim was to beat the bible, so to speak, at coming up with 10 rules a greater majority of the class would accept.

Put aside religion for a moment. From an ethical standpoint, what do you think of the ten commandments? Are there any you don't like?

admin: If you're talking ethics and putting aside religion, then it's basically just the second 5. I think ethically they are all pretty good.

I always particularly liked the distinction between "don't lie" and "don't bear false witness".

I think the summarized version Jesus gave in the New Testament was pretty comprehensive: the back half is summed up as "treat others as you would treat yourself". Pretty sound ethically speaking id say, when taken in the context it was given.

admin: 1. Do not murder (In the interest of consensus, I will leave this vague)
2. Do not assault. (this would include assault of a sexual nature)
3. Do not be dishonest.
4. Honor you promises. (This would apply to relationships [of any persuasion], business agreements, and anything in between.)
5. Be tolerant of others. (Do not let your prejudices rule you.)
6. Do not take what is not yours.
7. Make envy an ally instead of a roadblock to your own affairs. (Envy is impossible to avoid, use it as a guide for areas of investment in your own life.)
8. Respect your elders with appropriate honor. (Some elders [abusive parents] do not deserve honor and no honor would be appropriate.)
9. Treat others how you want to be treated.
10. Do not maliciously harm/kill animals.

That's all I got right now. I am getting a little tired, so I hope it makes sense to everyone else! I am sure it could use some tweaking still...

admin: I think the last five are how community should be ran, 5) Honer your father and mother, 6) Do not murder, 7) Do not commit adultery, 8) Do not steel, 9) Do not bare false witnesses, and 10) Do not covet.

Follow up question for Christians.

IF God let you pick another 5 commandments secular commandments, what would they be? To bring the total number of non-God commandments to 10.

admin: 1) Let Rebekah take over the world.
2) Do not join Westboro church.
and some other stuff.

Pinkie: You think the majority of people would accept those?

admin: Well 2nd one yes.

admin: from ethical points of view, 10 commandments are all pretty well, if i were be living on those times, but now you should work even on those day that you have to rest but doing a right things and not the bad things.

Now 10 commandments is lacking when ethical (christianity ) points of view will permitted.

olive 2: True.

olive 2: So if they're lacking, what commandments would you put in instead? What do you think would be the wrong things to avoid and the right things to do, essentially?

admin: Idk, I mean if you obey the first one all the others come after it.

Pinkie: I think what olive is getting at is that in Christianity, Jesus set a higher standard premised on not one but two commandments - love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself. He said to turn the other cheek towards your foes and to forgive. That's a little more than what God called for explicitly in the old testament.

admin: Interesting. It was a challenge to do but the way I interpreted what Olive was saying was this:

"In terms of Ethics, the 10 commandments are all pretty good if you were living in those times; but these days you should work even on the Sabbath - but only doing right things and not bad things.

These days there are parts of the 10 commandments that are not relevant where the modern Christian ethics fill in the gaps."

I'll admit to being a bit confused by her position as I understood it because it kind of goes completely against her previous stance where she said that the Bible was still relevant for today. Maybe you can tell us what you mean Olive?

I'd comment on what Admin said though...
When Jesus spoke of those two commandments he was efficiently summing up the "spirit of the law". The problem was that over the 500 odd years, the church leaders had turned God's law into a mass of smaller man-made laws which sent everyone off on the wrong track. Jesus came in part to explain that God's law was not supposed to be some confusing maze to navigate through - he summed this up with those two commands.

Since this thread was speaking apart from religion, we can discount the first comandment for now. The second one, to love your neighbor as you love yourself - is pretty comprehensive. Man is naturally self serving, always looking for whatever makes him happiest. If we were to look for what makes others happiest then surely that covers every suggested commandment in this thread!

You're right that the turn the other cheek comment calls for an even higher standard than than the old testament law does - but it's worth noting that that comment was aimed at illustrating that the church leaders had totally missed the point of the law. It shouldn't be "how much can I get away with?" or "what is the minimum requirement?", it's "how loving can I be?".
Turning the other cheek and walking two miles instead of one is about going above and beyond what's required. It's less to do with a command and more to do with a moral objective, something to strive for.

Skepticalone: 1. Do not murder. Yep, I agree with that.
2. Do not assault. Yep, agreed.
3. Do not be dishonest. If we were not dishonest... that's too much for my brain to comprehend. Don't agree.
4. Honor you promises. Whoa, then we'd actually have a GOOD government!
5. Be tolerant of others. Heh... heh. No human would live like that.
6. Do not take what is not yours. Hah... hah. No human would live like that.
7. Make envy an ally instead of a roadblock to your own affairs. Impossible, but agree.
8. Respect your elders with appropriate honor. Yeah, but most people forget to do that.
9. Treat others how you want to be treated. So far, that hasn't worked out too well.
10. Do not maliciously harm/kill animals. Agree.

DTinfinity: Fair enough but the whole point of "laws" like this is to establish a moral compass for all mankind to strive for - surely it doesn't make much difference if people have been successful at doing so yet?

DTinfinity: I don't agree with ten.

My ten would be:

1. Love
2. Tolerate
3. Prefer dialogue unconditionally
4. Be honest
5. Be considerate
6. Protest injustice
7. Learn/question
8. Be thankful
9. Be generous
10. Practice self-respect

admin: what does 3 mean?