- Thou shalt not be an asshole to any other person or animal, ever.
- Thou shalt not treat any other creature, with disrespect or with any intent to cause physical OR emotional harm, ever.
- Thou shalt not preach thine own beliefs to any other person, ever.
- Thou shalt not hold beliefs in any one single truth, that is not clearly based in reality, supported by science, with repeatable and observable phenomena that isn't generally accepted as fact, ever.
- Thou shalt not hold any other person to a standard of ethics higher than one's own, ever.
- Thou shalt not judge another person by skin color, gender, perceived disability, ancestry, or sexual preference, ever.
- Thou shalt not use one's own intellect (or perceived intellect) as a weapon against another person, place or thing, ever.
- Thou shalt not seek to better one's own interests, at the expense of another's, ever.
- Thou shalt not seek to control/prohibit/prevent/force/decide/judge what another person does to their own body, ever.
- Thou shalt not ignore the other 9 commandments, ever.
What are your ten commandments? In other words, I'm curious what standards/ethics/morals/codes/etc. my fellow atheists subscribe to, in their daily lives. And what happens to you, if you make a mistake and break one of your own "commandments?"
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Awesome!
There are several that I'd break constantly though, sadly lol
But I completely agree that:
#1.) Human beings deserve respect, rights, decency, and some nice treatment... And
#2.) These 10 are way better than the 'original 10'... Which as it turns out were falsely recorded... But we all know much of that already eh?
Good share!
Very good, ML HAVEN. I like them all, and they all make sense!! Way better than the "original" 10!! Yours can teach people a hell of a lot more than the others can...it would also lead to a much more peaceful world. It is my view, that as long as we have religion, the human race is doomed to not having any peace in this world...been going on now for thousands of years... it's not working for us, try something else...try NOT praying...try NOT going to church...try putting your importance and focus on more constructive values.
This was my personal attempt to write better commandments than the poor excuse of commandments that Yahweh is supposed to have come up with.
(I have written these in the forum a couple of times before.)
The ten commandments, 2.0:
1. You shall not kill, injure, torture, rape or otherwise harm others either physically or mentally.
2. You shall not enslave, own, terrorize, threaten, mistreat, repress or discriminate others.
3. You shall not indoctrinate or force personal ideals, opinions or beliefs on others, especially children.
4. You shall always be honest, truthful, fair, loyal and non-judgmental.
5. You shall assist and preserve life, our environment and biological diversity.
6. You shall assign equal value to all humans regardless of race, gender, age, handicap, sexual preferences or wealth.
7. You shall always value love, kindness, humility and generosity over hate, greed, pride and selfishness.
8. You shall defend yourself and those who need protection, both physically and mentally.
9. Those who harm children, physically, mentally or sexually, shall lose all rights as humans and should be severely punished.
10. No claim, person or institution is beyond questioning and revision, including these principles.
Well, I've read both sets of these and gotta say I do not agree that some of them should be contemplated as commandments. Commandment is a very strong word. As with any other set of commandments, I think both these sets are far too open to interpretation.
Some of them I completely disagree with. For instance, MLHaven's third one - that steps all over the right to free speech. And Prag, your #3 could be interpreted to include indoctrinating a child with the personal ideals that, for instance, truth carries more import than deceit.
Ultimately, I'm not convinced the human race has the capacity to create a flawless list of behavioral rules, nor should it attempt to do so.
I agree with your assessment about interpretation.
Each number probably requires a document defining it in detail.
But as obsessed as people seem to be about having such a list, it might as well be best if there is one.
Here is another attempt at such a list: http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/
Thanks for all the comments! I wanted to make it clear that my list is just my own viewpoint, not meant to be imposed on anyone else therefore not intended to step on anyone's right to free speech, etc. If anything I'm limiting my own free speech right by choosing not to spew my views all over other people and trying to preach or even force others to accept them as fact. Like religion often does to people.
I also like the contrast between my list and Pragmatist's list, mine being all negative and focused on what not to do. I really like the more positive commandments that give you a better sense of what you should do, it's much more self affirming.
Always an atheist, but new to this site and I'm glad I joined! One of the things that bothered me about atheism was the old argument that we NEED religion/commandments in order to maintain a civilized society. The older I get the more I feel it's the opposite, and it is religion that opresses us and keeps us from achieving higher levels of civility over time. But it's late, and I digress....
Thanks again for all the thoughtful and informative input :)
-MLH
Indeed, and that's why it is important that we hold to our separation from religion...
It is easy to see that people could believe that religion might bring some benefits.... But in the long run it tends to do more harm than good.
The ONLY people that religious people tend to accept, bar-none are other people who belong to their religion.
True non-believers accept just about everyone for who they are... Or at the very least respect people.
...We just don't have to respect their delusions!
Keep on keepin' on.
Hi MLHaven,
For number 2, you state, "Thou shalt not treat any other creature, with disrespect or with any intent to cause physical OR emotional harm, ever."
Does this mean that we all have to become vegetarians? I presume that hunting and fishing are out as well.
"Does this mean that we all have to become vegetarians?"
That would be the ideal, but we all know that "rules" are made to be broken. :)
Two, "Thou shalt not treat any other creature, with disrespect, or with the intent to cause physical OR emotional harm, ever."
Does this necessitate our group's mandatory transition to vegetarianism? It's safe to assume that fishing and hunting are off limits as well. https://wordletoday.io/