January 06, 2006

The 10 Commandments of the Ethical Atheist via Bifurcated Rivets
posted by At Swim Two Birds 18 years ago
  • These don't have to be limited to atheists. I belive in God, and they seem perfectly reasonable to me.
  • Thou shalt learneth proper use of Old English or useth normal fucking English.
  • What rocket saideth.
  • I have to agree, I favour a translation to modern English, rather than the cutesy "Englishe." Not a bad thing to remind folks that it is quite acceptable to live a moral life without the fear of eternal damnation or hope of eternal salvation. I daresay that most people who actually identify themselves as athiests are ethical. There's plenty of people who reject God or ignore the religious teachings they grew up with and posess a moral ambiguity to their actions at best. Perhaps they'd do better rediscovering their religious roots, pehaps they should examine the benefits of straightforward secular humanism, I'm not sure. But the folks I know who've identified themselves as athiests are quite moral people indeed. Or is all this an elaborate ploy to help the terrorists? (-:
  • My personal ethics include letting people believe whatever religions, superstitions, philosophies or spiritual beliefs they choose, and not calling them idiots, misguided, gullible, or feeling smugly superior to them. But that's just me.
  • I let people believe whatever bullshit they like until it starts to affect my wellbeing.
  • Bear Guy, now that you've said that the terrorists have already won. Way to go. I third the ditching of ye olde grammarmess. If you're an atheist, why would you want to try to copy the style of the King James bible anyway?
  • This site needs a holy hand grenade. From Antioch.
  • The Latest Decalogue Thou shalt have one God only; who Would be at the expense of two? No graven images may be Worshipped, except the currency; Swear not at all, for, for thy curse Thine enemy is none the worse; At church on Sunday to attend Will serve to keep the world thy friend; Honour thy parents, that is, all From whom advancement may befall; Thou shalt not kill, but need'st not strive Officiously to keep alive; Do not adultery commit; Advantage rarely comes of it; Thou shalt not steal, an empty feat, When it's so lucrative to cheat; Bear not false witness, let the lie Have time on its own wings to fly; Thou shalt not covet, but tradtion Approves all forms of competition. -- Arthur Hugh Clough Sometimes I have to applaud the Victorians.
  • Thou SHALT follow a Personal Code of Ethics. Thou shalt negate all other nine commendments with this one. Eth. Thou SHALT maintain a strict separation between Church and State. Thou shalt have difficulty with this one unless thou art actually an embodiment of The State or of A Church in thyself, which giveneth that this is intended for atheists pretty much restricteth this one to Civil Servantes. Thou shalt altho agreeeth with what otherth have thaid about the fuckinge Olde Englishe parodie which jutht maketh you thound thtupid.
  • The problem with those who insist that everyone be left alone to believe what they want is that the religious fanatics don't share this philosophy. And they use their influence to usurp institutions, seize power, and then kill anyone who disagrees with them. Just look at the Middle East. Cripes, just look at George Bush.
  • ak! I cannot help but have a kneejerk moment of obnoxious general semantics feminist whinging here. can't atheists move forward to a non-gender specific all-inclusive pronoun instead of the weary and time-worn "He" "His" Him" etc., blah blah blah... no! I am not druck, fcuk you!
  • The problem with those who insist that everyone be left alone to believe what they want is that the religious fanatics don't share this philosophy. Treating all religious people as religious fanatics is like treating all Muslims as terrorists and treating all blacks as gang members. Hate the fanatics for being fanatics, not for being religious.
  • Here's one: thou shalt mind thy own damn business and not go posting treatises telling everyone else how they should thinketh regarding a deity's existence or non-existence.
  • Drivingmenuts: If you can get the religious to do the same, I'd agree. However, they don't seem to have a problem publishing their treatises all over the damn place, taking up about 6 channels on the public tv spectrum, having whole sections in the bookstore devoted to minor variations on their principle theme, untold radio stations and going door to door looking to talk to people about stuff that they have no evidence for whatsoever. You are welcome to treat them the same way I treat the mormons who come to my door; which is, politely tell them to sod off, but noone is forcing you to go to his website. But, regarding the site, any real atheist worth his salt realizes that you don't need commandments, and in fact a commandment is counterproductive, and just teaching people to rely on doing what they are told without question once again. Think about your actions and the consequences and ethics will follow, and you won't need a set of commandments.
  • If ethical atheists like the Ten Commandments (why?) I should have thought they could easily produce a selectively amended version. Replacing the original with this ragbag of maxims, civic desiderata, meta-ethical principles and political shibboleths carries the unhelpful implication that ethical atheists can do as much as they like in the way of murder, theft, ass-coveting and so on.
  • Ontological theme, sensed emergent.
  • I coveteth yo ass.
  • Do not adultery commit; Advantage rarely comes of it; You obviously haven't met my next door neighbor, Jubbly Wingdinger. She was a second-string Bond girl.
  • Is Yoda the author of the above commandment?
  • Oh sure Medusa, "women are real people" . . pffth! That's not very Bright now is it? Um, is that a real axe, or . .y'know I think I left the car running . . .
  • now that you've said that the terrorists have already won. Way to go. And the terrorists will go far too, because they've won! Yes, they've won themselves a BRAND NEW CAR! With sleek lines and reinforced roof struts, you can haul everything thing you need to get your jihad, crusade, or general mission of violent intolerance started!
  • petebest, it IS a real axe, and the blood is real too, and I just disabled your car, so come here now, little boy, and tell me about yr philosophies of women again....
  • Thou shalt not define thyself in terms of the philosophy thou hast rejected.
  • These just seem like....oh, yeah, like what biffa said. I'm ethical. I'm moral. I'm an atheist. These just seem like they should be on a livejournal post or a myspace blog. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is simple enough. Can't we leave it at that?
  • He talks to God y'know.
  • In the spirit of the golden rule, I'm going to interpret Robertson's death the way he interprets others'.
  • Wait, Pat Robertson died!?! Praise Jebus!!
  • I think that was daydreaming on MCT's part.
  • STRAIGHT. TO. HELL.
  • I would like to meet this Jubbly Funbags McPerson!