I did not find all the new atheist commandments better than the original ones. I agreed with 6 of them, and disagreed with the remaining 4. You can read these new commandments in the article:
Atheist Rewrite the 10 Commandments - They are Much Better than the Originals. They can be found in blog titled:
Addicting Info - The Knowledge You Crave For. (http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/22/atheist-ten-commandments). The post was on Face Book Friday (4-11-15).
As a Christian, I found five of the new atheist commandments to be acceptable and good for the welfare of all-they are things that I already believe in because they have been taught to me by my family and put into action by good/decent people (including myself). In addition, these five good atheist commandaments seem to be rooted in goodness and consideration toeward others. Is it possible that they were takwen for mt he Bible? Maybe. Or they may have just a humanistic origin. However, the other five I found them to be contradicting, destructive and selfish. As a matter of fact, I consider four of these mindless, nearsighted, closed-minded and arrogant. I will tell you why. I will list all the ten atheist commandment and then analyze each one individually.
I agree with numbers 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, and 10, but cannot accept numbers 3, 4, 5, 9. I will begin with ones I agree with.
1- Be open-minded and alter your beliefs according to new evidence. Sure, humanity will keep on discovering new things, so we need to be open-minded.
2- Strive to understand what is most likely to be true. Of course, we must be practical in our investigations.
6- Be respectful. Agreed, it is matter of civility and humanity and compassion.
7- Treat other as you would treat yourself. Again, this is the golden rule. Where did it come from? I wonder, was it God or humans?
8- Be responsible to others. Same idea as the golden rule (commandment 7).
10- Leave the world a better place. Sure, we should all strive for this one. However, this one is also a contradiction! How can we make the world a better place if we have no respect, no discipline toward our own body? Since you have a commandment (#4- Everyone has a right to control his or her bodies.). This sounds exciting and full of freedom, no restrictions, no rules, no discipline. But this feeling is only on the surface, because if this commandment allows (those who believe in it) to do whatever one want, even to murder unborn children, or abuse his/her body with alcohol or illegal drugs, or even abusing foods by eating too much (or too little), and/or believing and supporting horrible things like the death penalty and/or euthanasia. I'm sorry to say, but his is complete non-sense! This commandment seems good on the surface, but underneath it is a is a deceiving one. One that hurts and destroys the human body and soul too!
I disagree with #s 3, 4, 5, 9 and 10. Here’s why.
3- The scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding. How do you (atheists) know that? Have you ever considered that there may be other dimensions? Dimensions that we cannot see/touch, but nevertheless they do exist. Read the books by Dr. Eben Alexander on his NDE (near death experience), and many other testimonies by other people- by the millions- who have passed away- died- and returned... This is the new scientific evidence that you (atheists and skeptics) need to look at.
These 2 books are by Dr. Eben Alexander. He was in a coma for 7 days, because of meningitis (only 1 person in 1000 can survive this) and came back and wrote about his experience. I have read both of these books and they are convincing, informative, and inspiring. In addition, all the books you see below are some of the latest and most recent evidence of life after death.
convincing and inspiring.
4- Everyone has a right to control his or her bodies. Yes, but does it mean that one can do whatever he/she please? I don't think so. Because this way of thinking- having complete control of one's own body- allows, gives license to uncontrolled emotions and actions, which can be detrimental (hurtful, disastrous) to self and to others. We have seen the results in the last 50 years; the slaughter of millions of innocent unborn children, and a lack of regard/respect for human life in our western societies This way of thinking is contradictory because we all have a responsibility to our bodies, to treat them well and with the out most respect. If we truly care about others (even unborn children, or the elderly) we must do what’s best for them, and for ourselves- that is to protect others and ourselves-our bodies, and without destroying new life with an abortion. People who respect their bodies do not abort fetuses because they are human beings. people who have respect for the human body do not abort because they know that because children are not inconvenience. That is exactly why people have abortions! They think that they can do anything with their bodies! Hence they commit abortions. But are abortions necessary? No, the vast majority (at least 99%) are not. However, many people (those who buy into this commandment) today come up with excuses as these; I can't have a baby now, I don’t have enough money, I need to go to college, I have a new job, I got to buy a house first, etc. This commandment is out-right wrong because, as we have seen, since the US Supreme Court decision to approve abortion, millions of people have abused this distorted commandment, and use abortions as a way to get rid of an unwanted pregnancy, a way to control births! So they can get rid of a child at anytime they want. That's morally wrong! I'm not saying that people shouldn't have the right to decide how many children to have, and or how large/small their family should be. What I'm just saying that abortion isn't a good, moral way to control the size of your family. There are other morally acceptable way to do that, like the natural way, avoiding getting pregnant by not being promiscuous before marriage, avoiding sex at a very early age (e.g., teen years) because at this stage we are not fully mature and capable of taking care of a family, etc. and of course we think necessary there are contraceptives too. All of these ways are better than abortions.
That is why i now say: what happened to these three commandments?
6- Be respectful.
7- Treat other as you would treat yourself.
8- Be responsible to others.
I guess you, atheists, forgot them!!! By using/abusing your body in any way you want, you can't possibly follow and apply these three in your life! Aren't you contradicting yourself? How can you be respectful to self and others if you have no respect for your body by, for instance eating too much, have uncontrolled sex, taking illigal drugs and/or drinking too much alcohol, and aborting a baby when it is an inconvenience for you.
5- God is not necessarily a good person. Why do you (atheists) say this? Do you Know Him? How can you say such things? If you do not believe in God? So, I guess, now you are the new god in this commandment- you're able to judge! How ridiculous!
9- There is no right way to live. That is a contradiction! First, you say that we must be respectful and considerate of others (# 6 & 8). And now you're telling me that there's no right way to live! Which way are you proposing to follow? The compassionate/humble way, or the selfish/arrogant way? For me this commandment makes no sense because it doesn't indicate (point/show) a good moral and ethical way.
MY THOUGHTS/FEELINGS
These atheist commandments are nothing new, and in particular #s:3, 4, 5, 9, have been around a long time, in fact the results are visible in our society. They are responsible for humanity's problems all throughout history, and lately in the last century. I'm referring to greed, violence, deceit, lies and disregard/disrespect and destruction of human life, and of our planet. We are killing human being with wars, with abortions, and destroying our planet with pollution. We could bring it to annihilation within a matter of hours! With atomic weapons! How can we consider ourselves an intelligent species? We think we are because some people now have the audacity to make their own commandments! No, I think we aren't so smart after all, we are, in my opinion arrogant- we think we know it all. When in fact, we can't possibly see/understand past our noses, and everything in the universe! How ridiculously closed minded we are!
What foolishness and hypocrisy! Many of these new commandments (the 5 I mentioned above) are down right destructive, and they will not make our life and our world better. We have seen the results that such new commandments have brought us (in advanced/industrialized societies) in the last 50-60 years. Let's honestly ask ourselves our world a better place today than several hundreds of years ago? When the vast majority of mankind accepted and believed in the afterlife, in heaven, in hell, in respect, in honesty, and in God? No, today our world isn’t morally better! It is physically better (more comfortable), but on a moral and ethical level we live in a decadent world. Why? Just look around, watch the news. Our world is filled with senseless violence, greed, corruption, deceit and lies! And yet, despite all this decadence, some think we are so smart and so advanced. Many are destroying themselves and our planet with these new commandments (#s 3, 4, 5, 9 and 10), this new way of thinking, which is nothing more than arrogance and selfishness. No, I don't believe that the scientific method (commandment #3) is the most reliable way of understanding because it isn't the only one- it isn't the only way to understand the universe. Everyone should not have the right to control his or her body (#4) because this is license to abuse and kill. (#5) God is a good person- it is humans who are evil. And last, (#9) there is a right way to live; that is to love, to sacrifice for others, to be honest, to be sincere, to share to tolerate others instead of hurting and killing them, and to do good all the time.
No, thanks! I rather keep the old commandments because they are consistent; they recognize the Creator of the universe, and also the fact that human intelligence is limited. We can’t understand everything in the universe- especially the things that are out of our reach- those things that we can’t see/touch, because they are in a different dimension (the spiritual), but they exist nevertheless!
The old commandments (the 10 that God gave Moses) make more sense to me. They are more effective, more sensitive to people's needs, more caring and reliable. Why? Because they came from the mind of God! Not form the limited and unreliable mind of mankind!
This essay © Copyrighted by Ottavio Lo Piccolo. April 10, 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this writing may be copied or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the authors’ written permission. Classroom teachers may copy individual articles with the images included in each piece, but only for instructional purposes and only for their classroom students. Images are from Google images, unless otherwise specified.
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