The Atheist Ten Commandments
1. Be open-minded and be willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence.
2. Strive to understand what is most likely to be true, not to believe what you wish to be true.
3. The scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding the natural world.
4. Every person has the right to control of their body.
5. God is not necessary to be a good person or to live a full and meaningful life.
6. Be mindful of the consequences of all your actions and recognize that you must take responsibility for them.
7. Treat others as you would want them to treat you, and can reasonably expect them to want to be treated. Think about their perspective.
8. We have the responsibility to consider others, including future generations.
9. There is no one right way to live.
10. Leave the world a better place than you found it.
Here they are from Bertrand Russell, published in the NEW YORK TIMES 1951
- Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
- Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
- Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
- When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
- Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
- Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
- Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
- Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
- Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
- Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.
And here are mine from about 20 years ago
I. Honor thy father and thy mother.
I. Thou shalt not kill, period.
III. Neither shalt thou steal.
IV. Neither shalt thou break any contract made in good faith.
V. Neither shalt thou bear false witness against others.
VI. Neither shalt thou enter the circle of vengeance.
VII. Teach thy children well.
VIII. Do unto others as you would have them do onto you.
IX. Love thy neighbor as yourself.
X. Thou shalt clean up any mess thy maketh.
And for those who do not recall the original
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Advocates jealousy and denies choice. Eliminate it.
Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I, Jehovah, thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me; and showing loving kindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. Again God advocating jealousy with the added crap of him putting the sins of the fathers upon the children for 100 years. It also bodes poorly for the billion or so Catholics who live in mortal sin for producing, praying to and looking at crucifixes, statues, paintings, engravings, and glass works of saints, angels, icons, renditions of Madonna and Jesus or any other thing. Eliminate it.
Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain: for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Touches upon heresy. Though swearing is not nice it’s not a mortal sin on par with murder. Eliminate it.
Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as Jehovah thy God commanded thee. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou. And thou shalt remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and Jehovah thy God brought thee out thence by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm: therefore Jehovah thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day. Though it may be nice for God to give we lowly humans a day off, this is absurd as a mortal sin. Billions of people break this every week. Not only shift workers, store clerks, police, fire fighters, emergency crews, but home owning grass cutters and leaf rakers. Also note it states slavery is accepted by God. Eliminate it.
Honor thy father and thy mother, as Jehovah thy God commanded thee; that thy days may be long, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee. Keeper, but eliminate the extraneous gratuities and centering this upon only Israel.
Thou shalt not kill. Keeper, stipulate further.
Neither shalt thou commit adultery. Keeper though make more inclusive.
Neither shalt thou steal. Keeper.
Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbor. Keeper.
Neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor’s wife; neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor’s house, his field, or his man-servant, or his maid-servant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor’s. Another confirmation of slavery. Covet, meaning desire, plays upon envy. Envy is not nice but not a mortal sin. Eliminate it.
Oh and looking these over I realized all of them forgot to mention RAPE, including me. These are all MEN oriented commandments.