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Why is Religion Special?
Theocracy? No thanks.
Should we Respect Islam?
Does God Bless America?
In what way is the law of any modern state based upon the Ten Commandments? If you care to look at it objectively the answer is clear - modern laws are human laws, and all the better for it.
Nothing in the Old Testament gives a clear message that killing people is wrong. The Old Testament is a profoundly racist document, it is assumed only Jews will read it and it is written accordingly. Nowhere does the Old Testament say that killing people is wrong, if they are not Jews then they are not counted at all. The Old Testament God might have created the entire universe but he obviously doesn't give a stuff about gentiles. Read those early books of the Bible and it is clear, the other tribes were to be wiped out to a man, the babies dashed against rocks and those women and girls who had no knowledge of men (virgins) were to be carried off as the spoils of war. No problem with killing gentiles at all. And yet when back in their camp when they come across a Jew gathering firewood on the Sabbath - a grave sin of the highest order - he has to die without being killed. This is a neat trick. Stoning is the solution. Bury the poor victim waist deep or more in sand outside the camp and throw stones at him. No single stone is likely to kill him so all who take part are free of the guilt of killing, and yet surely he dies. The way his merciful god sees fit. What a lovely lot the chosen race are.
No modern state makes killing of only one race a crime.
Adultery is a very serious crime according to the Ten Commandments. Even thinking about it (coveting thy neighbour's wife's ass?) is a crime. No civilized country sees adultery as a matter for the criminal law.
Which modern states regard covetousness as a crime? If they did Wheel of Fortune, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Pimp my Ride, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous and all those nauseating features on MTV about "Cribs" would be rendered illegal.
What part of the Ten Commandments establishes intellectual property rights (making copying a form of theft)? Which part is concerned with parking, with outlawing slavery, with sexual harassment or promoting equality between the sexes?
Which part of the Ten Commandments excuses execution by lethal injection?
Which part of the Ten Commandments establishes what is and is not a legitimate form of government? If it is right to render unto Caesar is it right to render unto Hitler or pay your protection money to Big Al or to bow to will of the Crips? How do you know what counts as legitimate violent imposition?
When modern laws coincide with the Ten Commandments it is only because those commandments are so blindingly obvious that they coincide with the norms of almost every race, tribe and band ever studied by any anthropologist. Stealing is wrong. No shit? Whoda thunk.
When people listen to the prattle of priests and preachers crazy laws are the result. When politicians and lawyers, for all their faults, make laws the results are usually a lot better than the ramblings of locust-munching desert beardies.