Subject: Re: Religion(I'm back. lol)
AntiUtopia@aol.com
Date: Wed Mar 01 2000 - 21:16:20 EST
In a message dated 3/1/00 8:38:44 PM Eastern Standard Time,
pariah1980@yahoo.com writes:
<< So God reduced the number to 10, thus the ten
commandments. And they're real basic stuff that isn't
too hard to stick to. >>
I've pretty well ignored this thread because it's not terribly original.
It's what I expect to hear, in fact, from pretty much every person I meet.
But, let's at least get the facts right. According to the Biblical
narrative, the ten commandments were given along with the rest of the Mosaic
Law on the Mount. Everything was given all at once, actually -- the designs
for the temple, the specific rules for the sacrifice, the roles of the
priests -- really, everything governing Hebrew life in the desert from
dietary rules, to bathroom rules, to moral laws, to the practice of the
sacrifice and the maintenace of the tabernacle.
So there was **no** reductive movement whatsoever. If anything, things just
got more complicated, as having the rules moved to understanding,
interpreting, and applying the rules. For example, the rule was, Don't have
a fire on the Sabbath. The idea was to not do work on the Sabbath. So some
people said you can start a fire the night before and let it burn all through
the Sabbath, while others said you couldn't have a fire at all on the
Sabbath. Seems silly now, perhaps, but to the people arguing over this issue
it meant a lot. If you really think this is the word of God, and if the
entire community's survival depended on God's favor (this was part of the
covenant too), then of course you care a great deal about getting the right
interpretation.
Reductive tendencies came later, through the teachings of Christ. The
teachings were that the external rules were just analogues for inner
qualities. Rather than having a command to Not Commit Adultery, now we have
commands to not lust in our hearts. Instead of being told not to murder,
we're told not to hate. This isn't to say that there was no concern for the
heart in the Mosaic law (Love your neighbor as yourself is a quote from the
book of Leviticus), but that the emphasis shifted over time from a Law
intended to guide the life of an entire community to a book of rules, and in
the teachings of Christ the focus was shifted away from externals back to
internals.
So external conformity to the rules is never compromised, but rather proceeds
from a different source.
So your whole approach to the issue is about as completely post-Christian as
you can get. Most of our society has absorbed the moral philosophy of Christ
without really knowing where it came from, or what it really means. We hate
self-righteousness, but have no clear concept of real righteousness. We hate
religious hypocrisy but are too befuddled to know what sincerity is. Now
that you're reading the primary texts it'll be interesting to see where you
go with it.
Now, if you think it's easy to never hate, never lust, never lie, never
covet...you just haven't tried that long or that hard :) And if you think
it's easy to never commit adultery, never steal, and never murder, you just
haven't lived that long.
Remember. . .nothing is what it seems :) And most of what you've always
believed is bullshit.
Hope your reading lifts you out of your society. Good luck.
Jim
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