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Sacred Principles vs. Ten Commandments |
Our Sacred Principles
are much more sophisticated than the old Ten Commandments were. I
suppose that 5000 years ago, or whenever they were written, that the
concpt of "Thou shalt not Kill" was a radically new idea. In fact the
Muslim world in particular still hasn't grasped the concept. Our Sacred
Principles are more forward looking, and they are subject to evolving
into something better as people evolve forward. They are not "carved in
stone" so to speak like the Ten Commandments were.
Having said that, the Church of Reality does recognize that the
commandments do exist, so let us take a look at each one of them and see
where we stand on them. Like Christian religions, I will pick and choose
which version of the 10 Commandments we are talking about. I choose the
Catholic version because they are shorter.
| The Bible |
Church of Reality |
| 1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. |
No - God doesn't exist |
| 2. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. |
No - Fictional Deity and prohibits free expression. |
| 3. Remember thou keep the Sabbath Day. |
No - It is based on the fictional idea the world was created in 6 days. |
| 4. Honor thy Father and thy Mother. |
No - Honoring parents is generally a good thing, but it depends on family relationships. Suggested but not required. |
| 5. Thou shalt not kill. |
Yes - Generally, murder is a bad thing. |
| 6. Thou shalt not commit adultery. |
No - We do encourage honesty in relationships. Some
people choose to have an open marriage. Adultry is not prohibited. |
| 7. Thou shalt not steal. |
Yes - Generally, Stealing is wrong. |
| 8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. |
Yes - Generally lying is wrong. |
| 9. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife. |
No - Isn't this really the same as #6? |
| 10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods. |
Yes - Isn't this really the same as #7? |
Even though 10 commandments are listed, the last 2 are really duplicates of 6 and 7. So there are really only 8 commandments. The Church of Reality agrees with 3 and disagrees with 5. If these were written by God, he didn't do a very good job of it.
Furthermore, the Church of Reality is strongly opposed to the first 3 of the 10 commandments in that they require the belief in a fictional deity that clearly does not exist. We consider the required belief in fiction to be religious oppression, and we find these first 3 commandments to be morally offensive. Of the 3 commandments that we agree with, killing, stealing, and lying, those are principles that are somewhat obvious under Humanism and natural law.
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