Ignorance is Bliss: Secular Commandments

The Ten Commandments are outdated. Seriously, have you looked at them lately? Three of them are meant to keep you from disrespecting or angering God, one more directs you to take a whole day, not really to rest, but to worship God, the next one admonishes you to do what your parents say, and the rest seem a collection of general afterthoughts. “Though shalt not kill” doesn’t come up until number six! If any sort of god really did make up these commandments, then he must have been a pimp or a smothering mother. But that’s just it, if you’ve had any education and any experience with people, you know this stuff was all made up. I can’t blame our ancestors; they didn’t have all the collective knowledge and experience we benefit from in this day and age. But what does irritate me to no end is when people cling to this old literature in light of new discoveries. Religious texts are literature, they are historical documents and are important in no way other than that.

We build upon that which came before us. Old knowledge is enhanced with new, and the world is a better place for it. In the back of my mind, I’ve been wanting to revisit those old Ten Commandments, distilling what remains true from the originals, and adding what we’ve learned since. It’s an appealing idea, to have a short list of laws that is easy enough for people to agree on and teach to their children, even if the list itself cannot begin to cover the complexity of our lives, and can’t really be taken as absolutes. If it were that easy, there would be no need for law libraries, after all. But you can’t frame a law library and hang it on your wall. So there’s been a sort of list of Secular Commandments forming in the nether regions of my mind for awhile, and this is my list so far:

)Thou shalt not despoil the Earth.

This one seems pretty simple, given our understanding of the impact we’ve had on our planet, even in history when there were relatively few of us. Our lives depend on our environment, and it seems it’s a lot more delicate than anyone would have thought.

)Thou shalt honor all other humans as equals.

I’m tired of religious and ethnic wars. These wars occur for several reasons, but one cause is the way people come to define themselves as being better or more human than others. It’s just not so. One life is not worth more or less than any other, and I don’t think the old texts really spelled that out.

)Though shalt endeavor to see through the eyes of others.

No one ever has to agree with another, but they need to at least try to understand why there are differences between them. When I look around, it seems no one is even bothering to try, they simply have a knee-jerk reaction and denounce what they don’t understand.

)Thou shalt not harm another.

This is taking the Sixth Commandment to the next logical step. People need to contemplate their lives, asking the question, “Is anything I’m doing (or not doing) hurting someone?” Do no harm.

)Thou shalt not deceive.

This one could be especially tricky, but I felt it important to say something about lies and deception. It seems it’s a regular, accepted, and yet denied practice from everyone on the planet, and it’s got to stop. But there are plenty of instances where it’s done for good and will come into conflict with this commandment. For example, what about sparing a child a painful truth? If anyone can think of a better way to frame any of these commandments, I’ll happily listen.

)Thou shalt not live in excess whilst others live without.

There’s only so much wealth in world. It’s a big pie, and some people are sneaking in early and gobbling everything but for a few crumbs, which then must be shared by six billion people. Stop hogging it all for yourself!

)Thou shalt not halt nor hinder the spread of knowledge.

Another difficult one to phrase. I’m thinking of scientists who’ve made wondrous discoveries throughout history and who were then tortured by authorities who feared change. But what about protecting intellectual property, or state secrets? That’s what law libraries are for, I guess.

)Thou shalt not remain silent whilst others break these commandments.

Being afraid for your livelihood doesn’t absolve you of allowing your employer to go on breaking laws. Likewise for neighbors, family, and members of the military.

)Thou shalt not suspend observance of these commandments.

You can’t put these things on holiday to go to war. Sorry.

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Feeling quite sure I had just re-invented the wheel, I did a search for "secular commandments" on Google, and sure enough there are various other proposals of a like mind. But I'm glad I wrote mine before searching, because I do feel there are key differences between mine and others I've now seen, and I doubt those differences would have come to be if I had seen other versions first. It's hard to have an original viewpoint!