There is a distinction between the posited origin of a set of injunctions, or commandments, and the utility or value of the commandments themselves.
What the Ten Commandments represent is a codification of the general rules evolved by multifarious communities over the ages to make social existence possible.
The same sorts of injunctions or commandments can be identified across great ranges of social organization, and their practicality is demonstrated by the fact that groups adopting them continued to exist.
Tacking them on to a God-figure, in fact, lessens their status as rules to be offered to others outside the cultural zone in which they were developed. This is the central issue which I am concluding I lack the power to make clear.
I will say what has been said again and again on this thread: "Atheism" is not like a Church! All atheists do not live by the same commandments or ethics or protocols! (They resemble Christians in this way.)
Here's another thought experiment: We have two people. One person conducts him/her self according to the Golden Rule to the best of his or her ability, because it is immediately, rationally clear to that person that this is a rule which enhances a decent social existence, and because this rule is also valued by others whose approval he desires.
And we have a second person who follows the Golden Rule because he or she believes it is the will of a supernatural entity for him or her to do so, and in many cases, because he or she fears that punishment, in life or post mortem, will come his or her way if he or she fails to obey.
Whose moral status would you find more attractive? (I'd say they are very close, looked at deeply; but if I were forced to choose, I'd go with the non deist.)
You may have noticed that most atheists, like most pagans and many of the orthodoxly religious, attempt to live by the very useful Golden Rule, a formulation predating the consolidation of Judeo-Christian doctrine, and one espoused by, among others, very irreligious ancient Greek thinkers, and praised in latter day Christianity as an excellent summary of the intentions of the Ten Commandments.
Here is, therefore, in its simplest form, this particular atheist's secular Code For Living, just made up this minute:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. If you can't always do it, do your best. There's no one here to tell us what to do, so it's important we figure out the best idea that resides in us, and live by it. And the best idea so far is probably Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. As a community, judge and attempt to edify or protect yourself against those who fail to live in this way. |
