R i g h t a r d i a: 10 commandments for atheists?

Sunday, December 11, 2011

10 commandments for atheists?

Penn Jillette'ss attempt on a "10 Commandments for Atheists"

Glen Beck asked Penn Jillete, the magician, if he could come up with a 10 commandments for atheists. Gilette is an atheist because in his craft most magicians see faith as hocus-pocus,

Rightardia thinks that the non-believer community doesn't need 10 Commandments, although we like the first one of Jillkete's a lot.

Dangerous Intersection points this out, too:

. . . The original line in Exodus 20:16 (KJV) is Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. This is a very specific form of lie. Even too specific. Not only is it an injunction against perjury, but only against perjury against your landholding neighbor, as opposed to people from other places, or to property such as women and slaves.

The Christian community likes to push the 10 commandments but most of them are archaic. The 10 Commandments were derived form Hammurabi's code and were probably written during the Israelite Babylonian captivity.

Rightardia would add education to the list. There is, of course, both formal and informal education. Perhaps the French proverb, "Don't die stupid" best explains our outlook on education!

Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative should also be considered.

In Kant’s view, the sole feature that gives an action moral worth is not the outcome that is achieved by the action, but the motive that is behind the action. . . The categorical imperative is Kant’s famous statement of this duty: “Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”

In other words, the end does not justify the means at least in terms of moral and ethical behavior. This is a philosophical "Golden Rule" of sorts.