If we did not have the...

Yes we would know right from wrong, already did that before Moses... But would you mind listing them, the commandments here, so we could discuss it better? Because I found the following on the wikipedia (exodus listing), and your list may be different of mine. you shall have no other gods before me. Okay he is a jealous god we all know that. You shall not make for yourself an image, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Pretty jealous huh? I think that catholics usually break this commandment, at least here in Brazil. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. Jealous? And I was thinking that god was perfect, perhaps jealousy is a mark of perfection and the jealous are nearer to god. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. Fourth commandment and not one single law about moral or crime, or life. Egocentric and jealous god, all about him. Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it. Five commandments, and this one is about work, damn, I work seven days a week. And all about GOD, GOD, laws that can guide a society? None. Let us see if we have more luck on the next. Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. At least, something useful, but, wait a minute. And if your father and mother abused you? Is there a treat here : so that your days may be long (or else?) You shall not murder. At least something useful, but what if I murder someone in self-defense. And it is not pretty obvious that if people start killing each other, people are going to be extinct? Because it can be derivated from : Do not do to others (kill, for example) what others do to you (Also knows as The Golden Rule, appeared in many places, before Jesus, Moses, etc.) You shall not commit adultery. Again, obvious. And also can be a logical conclusion of the GOlden Rule(I will not cheat, because I do not want to be cheated). You shall not steal. Obvious one again, but is usefull at least. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. Obvious, and more usefull. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; Obvious. Again. you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. Stop, Slave? Did I read slave, I must have copied something wrong, let me go back to the wikipedia and see if it was wrote slave there. I´m back and it is written slave there. Wow, I will come back to it later. Now From the 10 commandments we have Five about god (no other gods, no image, no image worshipping, no wrongful use of the name and one about god and work). So we have a jealous god that will punish even the children and granchildren of those who break the commandment about idol worshiping. Is this just that a children pay for a sin of its father/mother? Is it a just god? Is it right, what message does this commandment gives? That an all powerfull god can do whatever he wishes? And I am not even talking about 3rd and 4th generations here, what makes the case worse. Does anyone in our society pay for the crimes of their parents? No. So at least our society is more just, IN THIS ASPECT, than god´s law. Now about mother and father, could have something like : Honor thy mother and father AS LONG as they do not abuse you? I think that a omniscient god could order it written in a better way, at least to prevent child abuse from parents, and here I am not saying that god aproves it, but instead that the commandment could have be better wrote. Now the obvious stuff : Not murder, no cheating, no coveting , no false witness. Okay, does anything here could not have developed from the "Do not do to others what you do not want done to you"? I see nothing. Nothing that could not have developed from it. The last thing. Could not have god wrote that : Man are all equals and thou shall not have slaves? No, instead it gaves tacit support to slavery. Hey you can have slaves, but do not covet the slaves of others. Bais of right and wrong? LOL.

Adam and eve apparently ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, so the 10 commandments arn't the only source of ethical understanding from the Christian point of view.

People had to know what was right from wrong... Otherwise the people would not have been able to write the 10 commandments. The 10 commandments were written to create a law which could be enforced if those commandments were broken. This was the beginning of civilisation as we know it. It removed the law of the jungle where only the strongest survive. But we do not need those commandments anymore to be civilise. From 1500 AC... governments laws took over from the church to enforce the law. And since then... it is the responsability of our governments to maintain law and order. These days... it is not the 10 commandments which keep us in the straight and narrow... we have like one thousand commandments... all with very heavy penalties if you break anyone of them. God forgives... but the law does not.

I think we would still know the right and wrong even if God didn't give us the ten commandments. Even before I came to know these commandments, I already know which is right and which is wrong bec. experiences taught me so. In my own opinion, these commandments are just designed to provide us with a systematic guidelines for clean and righteous living.

This is a tough one but I am thinking yes we would still know right and wrong since Adam and Eve. I think the 10 Commandments were God's top 10, there were so many "other laws" that God wanted to make sure we knew what was most important in his eyes.

oh dear universal consciousness, of course we would know. what ya dont think the egyptians or the romans or hell ANY other civilization before the birth of christianity didnt have laws and ethics and knew right from wrong!?!?!?!