Ten Commandment Alternatives
Ten Commandment Alternatives are alternatives to the biblical Ten Commandments. Several alternative versions have been created, and no consensus exists as to a single authoritative version. An alternative to the Ten Commandments was recently popularized by Richard Dawkins in his book The God Delusion.[1]
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[edit] Examples
[edit] Georgia Guidestones
The Georgia Guidestones are large granite blocks that are inscribed with an alternative set of ten commandments.[2]
[edit] The God Delusion
The alternative to the Ten Commandments cited by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion is[3]:
- Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you
- In all things, strive to cause no harm
- Treat your fellow human beings, your fellow living things, and the world in general with love, honesty, faithfulness and respect.
- Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.
- Live life with a sense of joy and wonder
- Always seek to be learning something new
- Test all things; always check your ideas against the facts, and be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not conform to them.
- Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; always respect the right of others to disagree with you.
- Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others.
- Question everything
[edit] Christopher Hitchens
- Christopher Hitchens on the Ten Commandments [4]
- Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or their color.
- Do not ever even think of using people as private property.
- Despise those who use violence or the threat of it in sexual relations.
- Hide your face and weep if you dare to harm a child.
- Do not condemn people for their inborn nature. (“Why would God create so many homosexuals, only to torture and destroy them?”)
- Be aware that you, too, are an animal, and dependent on the web of nature. Try to think and act accordingly.
- Do not imagine you can avoid judgment if you rob people [by lying to them] rather than with a knife.
- Turn off that fucking cell phone.
- Denounce all jihadists and crusaders for what they are: psychopathic criminals with ugly delusions and terrible sexual repression.
- Reject any faith if their commandments contradict any of the above.
[edit] The Good Book: A Humanist Bible
The Good Book, compiled by A.C. Grayling, features ten commandments in The Good 8:11:
- Love well
- Seek the good in all things
- Harm no others
- Think for yourself
- Take responsibility
- Respect nature
- Do your utmost
- Be informed
- Be kind
- Be courageous
These come with the post-thought that the reader "at least, sincerely try" and an addendum in (The Good 8:12), "Add to these ten injunctions, this: O friends, let us always be true to ourselves and to the best in things, so that we can always be true to one another."
[edit] References
- ^ Dawkins, Richard (2006). The God Delusion. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 406. ISBN 0-618-68000-4.
- ^ Randall Sullivan. "American Stonehenge: Monumental Instructions for the Post-Apocalypse". Wired. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-05/ff_guidestones?currentPage=all. Retrieved June 30, 2011.
- ^ "The New Ten Commandments". http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/new10c.html. Retrieved 2009-03-30.
- ^
- Hitchens, Christopher, "The New Commandments", Vanity Fair, April 2010, [1]
- Christopher Hitchens reading the Vanity Fair piece in video format
