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Sitaram · Site Admin Joined: 14 Sep 2005 Posts: 1079

Date: Thu Aug 28, 2003 7:11 am
Subject: The Ten Commandments

http://sulekha.com/chpost.asp?for...ilosophy&show=0&cid=70982

Sitaram writes:

Such a dispute has lately arisen over the monument of the "Ten
Commandments" in a public building.

Our society is full of amusing contradictions. We pay such
lipservice to that book, the Bible, which proclaims the Ten
Commandments, and yet we are quite selective regarding what we
actually put into practice in our society from the Bible.

The Bible clearly advocates corporal punishment for children
(spanking, etc.), "spare the rod and spoil the child", and yet
we pass laws forbidding corporal (bodily) punishment of children.

The Bible clearly advocates capital punishment (the death
penalty), 'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live", "stone the
adultress". Yet, we protest the death penalty in many states.

Our Constitution forbids "cruel and unusual" punishment,
preferring life imprisonment as an alternative punishment.
Life imprisonment was unknown in ancient times, hence making it
"unusual". And many feel that life imprisonment is more cruel
than execution. I would certainly prefer death by lethal
injection over a lifetime in a prison system where I am at
the mercy of violent and pathological inmates.

Jesus clearly states that one should not swear upon anything
whatsoever but simply "Let your yea (yes) be yea and your nay
(no) be nay." Yet we require people who give testimony in
court to swear an oath, to raise their right hand placing
their left hand upon a Bible, and swear to tell the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Even that oath is a sham, since, having sworn to tell the
whole truth, then when questioned by an attorney, the witness
is forbidden to answer completely, but is required to simply
answer yes or no to the lawyers questions. How may we tell
"the whole truth" if we are forbidden to speak freely.

Jesus clearly states that one should not pray in public,
but should secret themselves in their room (closet) and pray
privately. So what do we do? We build a multitude of churches
where we stand up and pray in public. And all those church buildings
are used only once or twice a week (except for Catholic churches),
and remain empty and locked the other days of the week.

And such a multitude of church buildings, perhaps five or six
in even a small community, when only one building would suffice
for everyone. But we are all divided and fragmented and splintered
into so many sectarian groups by our differences of belief.
The old Testament says "Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God, the
Lord is ONE", and Jesus repeats these words, and yet we a people
are by no means "one". Jesus prays in the garden of Gesthemene,
"Heavenly Father, all those whom Thou has given to me, may they be ONE,
even as You and I are ONE." That oneness and unity of "Christians"
never came to pass. And there was far MORE unity among all Christians
during the FIRST millenium (1000 years) than during the second
millenium (which was when the body of the Church really began to
splinter and fragment, first the split between Greek Orthodox and
Roman Catholics in 1054, and then the Protestant Reformation of
Martin Luther in the 16th century.)

=============

Sitaram comments:

It was as I glanced briefly at the following article that I was inspired
to write the post entitled 'The Ten Commandments'.

It is amusing to think that, if God truly is 'the ultimate ruler of the world',
that God requires tragic puny hypocrital creatures such as humanity to fight
all His battles, wage all His "holy wars" and erect His monuments.

Lincoln once said, "Every nation which goes to war presumes that God is on their side, but what they should ask themselves is whether THEY are on GOD's
side."

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