I am so tired about hearing how great god is or the value of the teachings found within the pages of the Black Book of Lies. Forget all the killing and support of rape, as many xtians will say “what about the Ten Commandments. They are the foundation of bible teaching. Study the ten commandments.”
As an Occultist I also say so study the ten commandments! They epitomize the childishness, the vindictiveness, the sexism, the inflexibility and the inadequacies of the bible as a book of morals. When one studies and actually reflects on these, only six of the ten commandments deal with an individual’s moral conduct, which comes as a surprise to most xtians.
Basically, the first four commandments say:
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make thee any graven images or bow down to them, and if you do I’ll get kill you and your descendants.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the lord in vain, and I say fuck god as my response.
4. Keep the Sabbath holy.
The exact terminology is found in chapter five of Deuteronomy. Two other versions of the “ten commandments” can be found in the Old Testament. One version, in Exodus 20, differs slightly from the Deuteronomy version, while a third, in Exodus 34, is wildly different, containing commandments about sacrifices and offerings and ending with the teaching: “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk.” This is the only version referred to in scriptures as the “ten commandments.”
In essence, the first four commandments all scream that “the lord thy god” has an uneasy vanity, and like most dictators, must resort to threats, rather than intellectual persuasion, to promote a point of view. If there were an omnipotent god, can you imagine him or her being concerned if some poor little insignificant creature puttered around and worshiped a graven image like a horse cock covered in gold? Do you think that any god, possessing amount of good will you could expect to find in any neighbor, would want to punish children even “unto the third and fourth generation” because their fathers or mothers could not believe? How can anyone not perceive the pettiness, and psychotic insecurity behind the first four commandments? We are supposed to respect this? I say fuck him and his commandments.
“Honor thy father and thy mother” is the fifth commandment, and it is, of course, an extension of the authoritarian rationale behind the first four. Honor cannot be bestowed automatically by an honest intellect. Intellectually honest people can honor only those who, in their opinion, warrant their honor. The biologic fact of fatherhood and motherhood does not in and of itself warrant honor. Until very recently parenthood was not a matter of choice. What if your mother and father are using you as biological sexual toy, is It still a mandatory, not optional, happening for many of the world’s people. Why should any child be commanded to honor, without further basis, parents who became parents by accident—who didn’t even plan to have a child? All of us know children who have been abused, beaten or neglected by their parents. What is the basis for honor there? How does the daughter honor a mother who sexually uses her? “Honor only those who merit your honor” would be a more appropriate teaching, and if that includes your parents, great! “Honor your children” would have been a compassionate commandment.
Commandments six through nine—thou shalt not kill, commit adultery, steal or bear false witness—obviously have merit, but even they need extensive revision. To kill in self-defense is regrettable, but it is certainly morally defensible, eminently sensible conduct. So is the administration of a shot or medication that will end life for the terminally ill patient who wishes to die.
Adultery, the subject of the seventh commandment, again raises the question of an absolute ban. For the most part fidelity in marriage is a stupid rule, making for unhappiness; but some marriages may outlast affection. Some couples may agree to live by different rules. Until relatively recent times xtian marriages were not dissolvable except by death, so the ban of divorce coupled with the ban of adultery obviously created great distress. Adultery is beautiful, it must be remembered, involves an act between consenting adults. How much more relevant and valuable it would be to have, for instance, a commandment that forbids the violent crimes of non consensual rape or incest.
“Thou shalt not steal” raises questions regarding the usefulness of a blanket condemnation, and may put squatter’s rights ahead of public and private welfare. Should people who are cold or ill steal to ameliorate their situations? Should the child who is hungry steal? Surely this commandment cries for some amending clauses. What if I am a prostitute and my customer is stupid and leaves his wallet or her purse accessible?
In general, to bear false witness is construed to mean “don’t lie,” and that is a valuable moral precept, except again it is stated in absolute terms. Lies have saved lives, they have preserved relationships, and every day they save hurt feelings. The truth is not always a reasonable or kind solution. Interestingly, in biblical times the dictum not to bear false witness against a neighbor was a tribal commandment and meant to apply only to persons within the tribe—it was quite all right to bear false witness against “strangers.”
Finally, the tenth commandment, which riles the feminist blood, says: “Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbor’s wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbor’s house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or anything that is thy neighbor’s.” In addition to rating a wife with an ox and an ass, the bible loftily overlooks the woman who might desire her neighbor’s husband. Covetousness somehow does not seem like such a crime. If you can’t have a comfortable house or a productive farm, what is the great harm in wishing you did? Covetousness may be nonproductive and unpretty, but to make a big, bad deal out of it is ridiculous. Xtian apologists sometimes will excuse the triviality of the tenth commandment on the basis that to covet, in a more superstitious age, meant “to cast an evil eye.” Someone who coveted “his neighbor’s house” was purportedly casting an evil eye on that property with a view toward its destruction. Whether one accepts the apologist’s definition of covet or the more popular meaning, the tenth commandment lacks real importance.
Little in xtianity is original. Most of it is borrowed, just as the celebration of Xmas
was stolen from Roman and earlier pagan times. When the “lord” supposedly wrote his commandments on two tablets of stone and delivered them to Moses (Deut. 5:22), he was only regurgitating earlier gods: Bacchus, Zoroaster and Minos.
It is why I turned my back on this alleged god and devoted myself to Lilith, as well as all the book and Abrahamic religions prohibit. Yes I am an Occultist, Heathen, Pagan, Satanist, Lucifarian or you choose the label.
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