TEN COMMANDMENTS, n. pl. The fundamental moral precepts of the Christian and Jewish faiths, and a fine set of guiding lights for us all. Some low-minded skeptics have suggested that God could have improved upon these inspired moral principles if It had dropped the commandments concerning swearing, idol worship, sexual exclusivity, and resting on the sabbath, and had instead instituted bans on slavery, torture, and cruelty, but these suggestions are obviously sacrilegious. If slavery, torture, and cruelty were true moral evils, organized Christianity would not have condoned, instigated, and practiced all three for the better part of two millennia. Fortunately, most Christians recognize this and do not bother themselves about such trifles. Instead, they rightly concentrate their moral outrage on the true evils of “obscene” books and pictures, “filthy” language, and the sexual practices of their neighbors.
* * *
— from The American Heretic’s Dictionary (revised & expanded), the 21st-century successor to Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary. (The link goes to 50 sample definitions and illustrations.)
‘Thou shalt not kill” in the Christian version was “Thou shalt not murder” in the original Hebrew, and only applied to Jews. “Remember the Sabbath to keep it Holy” is ignored by most ‘Good Christians’ who worship on Sunday, because “The Sabbath” is from sundown Friday, till sundown Saturday. 😯
LikeLike
If this is the best you can do to justify millennia of cruelty, misogyny, homophobia, censorship, witch burnings, torture, and slavery, I rest my case.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I don’t think that anyone can justify what the Christian religion has inflicted over the centuries, and I certainly wouldn’t want to try. My thoughts, opinions and position seems to align closely with yours.
The most important part of the old testament to Christians is the Ten Commandments. They start with “God’ being so insecure that he gives several orders that we be little emotional support animals. A bunch at the end are intended to ‘keep us in our place,’ and not thinking for ourselves.
I was merely pointing out that, of the two most important Commandments, the inerrant Bible gets one of them wrong and that, the ‘better’ the Christian, the more likely they are to violate the other. 😯
LikeLike
Ahh! I misread your earlier comment. Sorry about that.
LikeLike