God Laughs

Part Two – The Ten Commandments

When asked if he believed Moses receiving the Ten Commandments was a revelation, Thomas Paine replied, “Yes, but only to Moses. To everyone else it is hearsay.” Much of what should be considered hearsay is all too often taken as gospel by Christians because of what they interpret from the Bible, and other religions look to proverbs and passages from their holy texts with the same results. Unfortunately, that which is considered to be gospel is seldom questioned or challenged as surely it should be. The content of those Ten Commandments should raise serious questions, not simply whether they ought to be displayed publicly on federal property, but whether they should be accepted as rules from God, and further, whether or not they are good rules to live by.

At the outset let’s acknowledge that Moses was a wise, capable and well-qualified leader, one who recognized what was needed to maintain order and one who was aware of his own limitations. As he may well have seen it, laws and rules derived by Moses may carry some weight with the children of Israel, but Commandments from God would definitely carry a whole lot more weight. Commandments from God, rather than from Moses, would give much needed credence to the rules, but more importantly from Moses’ point of view, they would solidify his role as leader. One may or may not choose to obey the word of Moses, but one will surely strive to obey the word of God. And who would one choose to follow, a common leader or one who communicates directly with God? Moses recognized those nuances; why else go up into the mountains alone?

The idea that God has communicated directly with a few, a extremely scarce few, chosen men, and that mankind must heed and obey that which is passed along by those chosen few, has evolved beyond religious mythology. Man possesses the capacity to think and reason, yet many believe that God wants them to suppress their reasoning ability and accept without question that which is hearsay. God must laugh at such a concept. Sheep and lemmings were created to be sheep and lemmings. Man was not!

But back to the Ten Commandments. Civilized man realizes the need for laws and beyond that he knows that laws often require complex explanations and definitions for reasons of clarity in order to avoid loopholes, exceptions and confusion. Consequently, we do not have such simple laws as: ‘Thou shalt not kill’ and ‘Thou shalt not steal.’ These simple thou shalt nots, left to interpretation of convenience, have plagued man with moral dilemmas for centuries. ‘Thou shalt not kill’ means one thing, while ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ means something else and ‘turn thy cheek’ something completely different and contradictory. So we conveniently find exceptions to ‘Thou shalt not kill’ in order to accommodate our justification of war, self-defense, and the death penalty. Then there are the myriad issues concerning taking a life that is not human life. Is hunting okay? Can we kill those pesky insects?

The real issue concerning those Ten Commandments, however, goes beyond critiquing their vulnerability to interpretation. The real issue is their value as rules to live by, to improve human civility and man’s ability to coexist with his fellow man in harmony with the natural environment. Remember, this is THE Ten Commandments, God’s directives, what He demands of man. A Supreme Being would never include triviality and nonsense in such a list.

Triviality? Is it not blasphemous to claim the Ten Commandments to be trivial? ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.’ In the overall scheme of things, that is trivial. ‘Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.’ This from the Supreme Being? He does not need your worship nor does He need your undivided attention. He put you here with other objectives in mind. Besides, and do give this serious consideration, since He knows what is in your heart and on your mind, does that not make overt worship a wasted effort. Is it not redundant?

If the above assertion of triviality is blasphemous, it is but a venial blasphemy when compared with what must be the deadly sin of claiming some Commandments to be nonsense. Nonetheless, commanding one to not covet is commanding one to not wish, want, or desire and that simply goes against human nature. To not covet is tantamount to not living, or even worse, living after a lobotomy. The sin is not in coveting. Coveting is natural. The sin is what one does as a result of, or in response to, his coveting, and the commandment should so specify. Perhaps the commandment should read: Though Thou may be beset by extremely strong wants, desires and urges that cannot and often should not be fulfilled, it is incumbent upon thee to learn to live with and accept those disappointments.

But the very worst of the Commandments, one that truly does more harm than good, and one that was obviously derived from man and not from God is: ‘Honor thy father and thy mother.’ God would never put the onus on the child! This crutch for poor parenting must be recognized and acknowledged for what it is. Becoming a parent is all too simple and natural. Being a parent, a good parent, is far more difficult. Children come into the world wanting nothing more than to honor, love and respect their parents. It is the parents who must be commanded to always strive to earn the honor and respect of their children. Using the fear of God’s wrath to control and manipulate a child is detrimental to both child and parent.

God cannot be happy with our interpretation and blind acceptance of the Ten Commandments. But then, as thinking, reasoning and supposedly rational beings, we do manage to disappoint in oh so many ways.