Write your own New Ten Commandments

See what the folks at the UCC forums think: http://forums.ucc.org/viewtopic.php?t=3040

I'm not going to make this a long-winded rant about how lacking I think the Ten Commandments and the Bible are as moral instructors (compare to, say, the Humanist Manifesto), but instead I invite you all to write your own set of New Ten Commandments, just for fun. Mine are rather long, but feel free to be as detailed or brief as you like. I'm interested about what you think.


1. Act according to what will result in the most pleasure and happiness possible for the most entities, present and future, who can experience pleasure and happiness possible, and the least pain and suffering for every entity that can be in pain or suffer. Do not limit your concern to consequences within lifetime. Value the future in its entirety.

2. Be as proactive and involved as possible in increasing and safeguarding the well-being of all conscious beings. Do not be lethargic, do not turn a blind eye, and do not become stone in the face of your obligations as a sentient being; selfishness, greed, ignorance, apathy, and laziness cannot be accepted.  Be diligent, inform yourself, concern yourself, take responsibility, and do as much as you can to achieve the best as you can. Do not let any suffering befall a creature who can experience emotion if you can prevent it; if it is possible you can bring joy to a consciousness, do so.

3. Be diligent and inquire, observe and research, reason and philosophize. Educate yourself and others in all matters and all areas, especially ethics and morality, and enjoy learning about the Universe. Constantly strive towards knowledge and truth and practice humility in your pursuits and discourse. Do not be afraid to unweave rainbows. Do not accept or embrace ignorant: fight it.

4. Do not accept any proposition, idea, theory, opinion, ethic, or supposition as fact, truth, or reality, no matter how many people believe and espouse it and no matter how much you love or trust those people, unless it agrees with your own reason. Probe, question, and challenge everything.

5. Do not indoctrinate your children or your peers or imbue them with hypotheses while presenting them as facts. Teach your children that they ought to think, not what they ought to think. Show them all the evidence, educate them, show them the beauty of the world, and do not let them be ignorant, apathetic, lazy, or unethical.

6. As far as is possible, do not discriminate or oppress based on sex, race, culture, sexual orientation, or species. Don't give different treatment to a being because you consider it to be the same species as you, or because it is organic or non-organic like you: concern yourself only with a creature's ability to appreciate the consequences of your actions; its ability to be happy and to suffer.
 
7. Enjoy life and make yourself happy as much as possible, so long as it doesn't interfere with the happiness and others. Make the most of all your experiences, your luck, your life, and your limited time existing. Enjoy your sex life, and leave others to do what they please in private.

8. Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture, or kill any creature or living being* for your own satisfaction, do not seek revenge, do not destroy beauty and rarity for pleasure. Do not do things to others that they dislike (whether you like those actions being done to you or not, whether you like those creatures or not), only perform deeds that will cheer them. Love, cherish, and respect every creature and living being.

9. Be wary of those who claim to do good but whose actions are immoral. Every evil deed has been done in the name of good, none have been done in the name of evil. Do not overlook intentional suffering, but be prepared to forgive and reconcile.

10. Learn all you can about morality, study ethics, and determine right and wrong. Be prepared to throw out your old ideas for the well-being of all people and creatures. After you feel you have enough knowledge, write your own commandments – or better yet: realize you have no need for them.

*Not my line: I plagiarized that one from the Jains.

1. Do onto others as you would have others do unto you.

Everything else is commentary.

1. Don't be a dick
2. Everyone in the world has to mail me $5 on my birthday

[Judaism, Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a]

I don't think the golden rule is as great as everyone makes it up to be. It lacks technicality and coherency.

[Judaism, Hillel, Talmud, Shabbath 31a]

I don't think the golden rule is as great as everyone makes it up to be. It lacks technicality and coherency.

Maybe so, but I think it's a damn sight better than the original 10 Commandments, and much shorter than yours. Also, that's what the "commentary" is for - how to interpret the golden rule into something more technical and coherent.

1. Love yourself very very much.
2. Love your neighbor as you would yourself.

Was I kidding? Yes.
Here is my real reply:

1. If you are one of those guys who whistle while in the hallways during class periods at school, stop it.
2. Thou shalt not make faces in front of the electric blower, lest a great wind smite you and your face be permanently ugly.
3. Thou shalt not smoke when I am in the immediate vicinity. I shall stuff that cigarette up your ass even before my asthma kills me.
4. If you tell me or hint at me that you have a massive dong, I'll grasp it and twist it real hard. So don't.
5. Thou shalt allow me to copy your homework for today.
6. Thou shalt pay me if any or all of the answers I copied from you for today's homework were wrong.
7. Keep 4chan jokes at 4chan.
8. Say it, don't say it.
9. Thou shalt not use Banana Ketchup. Instead, use the better tasting Tomato Ketchup.
10. Use that pink thing inside your head.

10. Use that pink thing inside your head.

It's gray.

Pink is more interesting, and are you sure?
You've seen your brain? Ouch.

Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself...
What do masochists do?

3. Thou shalt not smoke when I am in the immediate vicinity. I shall stuff that cigarette up your ass even before my asthma kills me. - here here, but without the asthma part
9. Thou shalt not use Banana Ketchup. Instead, use the better tasting Tomato Ketchup.is there such a thing as banana ketchup?  that's just wrong...
10. Use that pink thing inside your head.I love you

Yeah, banana ketchup, that's why I'm making it a commandment. I don't want no banana ketchup on my food!>:O

Love you too.<3

1. Go get a life.

1. Go get a life.

2. Practice what you preach.

Quote from: Cool Man on March 03, 2007, 04:42:20 PM

1. Go get a life.

2. Practice what you preach.

<3 u Ubuntu.  Best reply ever.

Quote from: Ubuntu on March 03, 2007, 05:20:35 PM

Quote from: Cool Man on March 03, 2007, 04:42:20 PM

1. Go get a life.

2. Practice what you preach.

<3 u Ubuntu.  Best reply ever.

Hey, you're a little fag and no one likes you, and I'm talking to you on AIM! LAWL

I may be a fag, but you know you like me.   

*chuckles out loud, col*

Out of curiosity, Ubu, are you a vegetarian?

Out of curiosity, Ubu, are you a vegetarian?

Yes, except when it comes to beef, pork, poultry, fish, ovis, and venison. Why do you ask?

8. Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture, or kill any creature or living being* for your own satisfaction, do not seek revenge, do not destroy beauty and rarity for pleasure. Do not do things to others that they dislike (whether you like those actions being done to you or not, whether you like those creatures or not), only perform deeds that will cheer them. Love, cherish, and respect every creature and living being.

That is what made me curious.  I would hate to live a non-carnivourous life.   

The current situation with livestock is awful though. Animals don't receive any sort of human treatment and are often killed in excruciating ways, such as cows being boiled to death.

So many people live in the Meatrix...

"Ten Commandments" are completely unnecessary. Honestly, all they do is mess with things. Once you start putting in writing what doesn't NEED to be in writing because it's so BLATANTLY OBVIOUS, then people start going, "Hmm...Maybe, just maybe, I should try doing the opposite of what this says. That'd be a great idea." People will be people, but if you give them rules, they will break them. As parts society, though, it's already coded in the very roots of our brains. I don't think it gets any simpler than that.

1. Love yourself very very much.
2. Love your neighbor as you would yourself.

Was I kidding? Yes.
Here is my real reply:

1. If you are one of those guys who whistle while in the hallways during class periods at school, stop it.
2. Thou shalt not make faces in front of the electric blower, lest a great wind smite you and your face be permanently ugly.
3. Thou shalt not smoke when I am in the immediate vicinity. I shall stuff that cigarette up your ass even before my asthma kills me.
4. If you tell me or hint at me that you have a massive dong, I'll grasp it and twist it real hard. So don't.
5. Thou shalt allow me to copy your homework for today.
6. Thou shalt pay me if any or all of the answers I copied from you for today's homework were wrong.
7. Keep 4chan jokes at 4chan.
8. Say it, don't say it.
9. Thou shalt not use Banana Ketchup. Instead, use the better tasting Tomato Ketchup.
10. Use that pink thing inside your head.

Marry me.

~D-Draw

So are you saying you only eat animals you have fun or what?  How do you get around the "humane treatment" dilemma?

I am in agreement with Ubuntu there.  I've got nothing against eating meat, and do eat it myself, but I do think that there should be a lot more strict rules and laws on handling animals.  It's not hard to put yourself in their "hooves" and think about the shitty conditions many animals are forced to live in, and as Ubuntu said the inhumane ways they are slaughtered.

I am in agreement with Ubuntu there.  I've got nothing against eating meat, and do eat it myself, but I do think that there should be a lot more strict rules and laws on handling animals.  It's not hard to put yourself in their "hooves" and think about the shitty conditions many animals are forced to live in, and as Ubuntu said the inhumane ways they are slaughtered.

True, though you can't compare animals to humans. Obviously, they still feel pain, but they are far less intellectual than humans, and saying that boiling a cow alive is the same as boiling a human alive is the same is just simply not true. Also, you have to keep in mind, it's only nature for stuff like that to happen. Yes, there are some bad conditions for cows and what not, but zebras in out on the African savanah get their necks ripped open by lions all the time, too. Is there anything to do about it? Not really. Why fuck with what can only be natural when you can just eat your meat without worrying so much about how the cow felt?

~D-Draw

Why fuck with what can only be natural when you can just eat your meat without worrying so much about how the cow felt?

In the relevant sense of natural, this is totally the opposite. The livestock industry builds concentration camps for animals.

You can treat livestock humanely and it will not make their meat any less tasty – in fact, it might make it more delicious.

long live meat is what I say. Although we refuse to battery birds...

Appart from the inhumane treatment of battery hens, there's the added problem of when they're sitting in their piss, the urine burns into their skin and we eat it. It's called...hocburn(sp). Not good.

damn straight.