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Post #602746

Author
CP3S
Parent topic
The thread where we make enemies out of friends, aka the abortion debate thread
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/602746/action/topic#602746
Date created
21-Oct-2012, 8:39 PM

I'd love to see this sociological survey and to discover who it was conducted by.

Essentially what you, and this conductors of this survey and by extension those surveyed, are saying is that universally, all over the world, people believe that:

1. That there should be no gods worshiped other than the Judeo-Christian god.

2. That idols or images of gods are bad.

3. That we ought to be really careful how we use the name of the Judeo-Christian god, and not use his name flippantly.

4. That no work should be done on Saturdays in honor of the Judeo-Christian god.

5. That mothers and father should be honor (good practice, but I am not sure how universal it is. Take one good look at your average nursing home in the US and I call bullshit on the universality of this, but maybe it is the thought that counts.)

6. That killing is bad (this one is probably true, throughout most of the civilized world killing for no reason is typically frowned on. But that hasn't stopped thousands of years of casual human sacrifices, infanticide, war, and genocides. Even the Judo-Christian god was all about ordering his chosen people to commit genocide when he saw it fitting.)

7. That committing adultery is bad. (Not sure how this plays into polygamous cultures, and there are plenty of cultures where it was pretty common. Even in America it is a pretty normal occurrence, even among the Bible thumping population. But sure, I'll hand this one over as potentially "universal")

8. That stealing is bad. (Sure, this is another one I'll hand over to potentially "universal")

9. That lying is bad. (Again, I'll give you this one as potentially universal)

10. That you should covet. (Yeah, can't really give you that one. Everyone wants things overs have, sometimes very badly. It doesn't make it wrong. I don't even think most Christians believe this one.

 

 

I think at best here, half of the Ten Commandments might be socially desirable and believed in by the majority of the world's population, but in each case, it also fits into the "golden rule". You don't want to be murdered, so you're going to consider murder bad. Nobody likes to be lied to, so generally you aren't going to appreciate dishonestly. Nobody likes it when other people sleep with their spouses behind their backs, so generally, you're going to think it is a bad thing. The idea of you're kids being disrespectful little assholes isn't very appealing, so you are going to think it is a bad thing.

Perhaps, the valid half of the ten commandments are part of the ten commandments because they were universally valid long before the ten commandments were thought up, rather than universally valid because they were part of the ten commandments. All the parts regarding respect and worship of god are far from universal, and the very suggestion of this is more than a little humorous/pathetic.