What Is The Point Of The Ten Commandments?

For me the point of the ten commandments is for us people to know the right way to go. Or it is a guide for us people to make good things.

That rapist will have some hard lessons coming regardless of how man deals with it. Everything we choose in life comes back to us in time.One day the rapist will understand. As for the rest, there must be separation of church and state until the point God is really understood.People are so controlling of others, not to mention no religion really has God figured out yet.Our diversity and freedom along with interaction will guide the way to the truth. To control this learning system will only find you stuck, going nowhere.Consequences of our choices has always been the best teacher. The school of hard knocks, sometimes one must just attend to understand.

the only ones I can think of that are important legally are not to kill or to steal. but these aren't religious ideals. these are things necessary for a society to run smoothly. again, adultery, to me, is utterly awful, and destructive, but I don't believe that it's the place of the government to interfere in relationship problems. and a lot of the others are either irrelevant to the wider public, or downright offensive to those who don't follow that religion. well excuse me I WILL have other Gods, thank you very much. MY Gods. the ones that have been with me throughout my whole life over one I've never met or experienced. and it strikes me that a lot of Christians don't understand what an idol actually is, or how it's used. some Christians say I worship Idols, and I've never used a physical image of my Gods in worship in my life. some people seem to think that an idol is a deity they don't believe in. rather than a physical representation of a deity used as a point of focus and worship. and as for when an image is used. PEOPLE! when someone uses an idol, they are not worshipping an object. any more than when you post to someone on a forum you are talking to their avatar. you're not. you're talking to the person. the avatar gives you somewhere to look when you're thinking of something non physical.

Hi gewcew, I agree that most of the ten commandments mean little today and the one about the Sabbath is specially correct. However in the time that they were written and for whom they were written, I think that it was a good set of rules. I don't believe that they were given by God but they show great wisdom for that time in history. Again I'll use the example of the Sabbath day because every human and animal who worked for another needed a day of rest. They should not be used generally today because it would be wrong to use laws given to Jew and also accepted by Christians, on those of another faith. Blessings.

What is the point of the Ten Commandments? That's a big question and for anyone who isn't a Jew or a Christian, the answer is that they don't have any real point for you, except in the case of the four that you mention that deal with common law. But most people obey those because they are the common law and not because God said they should. Islam also recognizes the Ten Commandments, although they are transcribed slightly differently in the Qu'ran. The original point of the Ten Commandments was for the good of the Israelites. Here there were a large group of people, recently escaped from a condition of servitude but it seemed to them often that they were better off in Egypt where life was still easier than trudging through the desert. God wrote these commandments to show them how to live in harmony and within God's law. In addition to the basics of not lying or murdering or stealing, if you are God, then the commandments about not having other gods or worshipping idols makes perfect sense. "the best moral system is based on reason and logic" I would argue that the best moral system is based on a deep understanding and acknowledgement that humans are special. We must recognize human beings as being endowed with certain inalienable rights, even if you don't believe that God was the source of that endowment. By nature, humans are entitled to be treated equally and with equal concern for those rights. We value our right to life, so we must not murder another who has the same right. We value right to property so we must not steal from another or we violate his rights. To violate the rights of another human, diminishes all humans. The Christian may say "love thy neighbor as thyself", the Libertarian simply believes live and let live, each to his own - but they both acknowledge the basic humanity that entitles the individual to those rights. I don't believe that the verses regarding covetousness are redundant to those on stealing, since one may covet without stealing. If my co-worker has a new car and I drive a clunker, I may covet his car which brings up envy and bitterness, things that do detriment to my character. To covet is to engage in sinful behavior in the mind. Evil thoughts may lead to evil deeds, but even if they don't, they do harm to the thinker of such thoughts. God's laws are not there just to keep us from making God angry, they are there as a guide for our good, to do us good.