An atheist’s view of the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule (Part 1)

A recent WIN- Gallup poll conducted shows that more people in the U.S.  identify as being atheist than in 2005.  No doubt there will be great concern and outpouring of fear from the religious folks regarding this and the future of our society.  My goal here is to put the fears of the religious aside.  I’m not out to convert anyone to atheism, but rather, stop the stigma against it.  Atheists and theists alike can coexist with little conflict.  However, there is one caveat here:  both the religious person and the atheist have to be good people.  Since Christianity is the majority religion in America, I thought I’d give a play by play on the 10 Commandments and how atheists view them, as well as the Golden Rule. 

1. Thou shall have no other gods before me. 

This mandate really has no basis in ethics or morality and everything to do with the perpetuation of the religion.  In addition, as an atheist I see it as a very dangerous mandate, one that has been manipulated and used by despotic governments for centuries as a way to get poor men to go to war and die for them, for free.   This mandate provides a framework and structure for the church, but really has very little to do with a person’s ethics.  The problem comes when people associate it with that.  That’s when we get religious wars, persecution and prejudice. 

2. Thou shall not make unto thee any graven images and thou shall not bow down to them.

This is definitely a church preserving mandate.  In addition, when reading the entire passage, I am struck with the idea that crosses and crucifixes are graven images.  I really can’t see how this has anything to do with morality. 

3. Thou shall not take the Lord’s Name in Vain.

Like the first commandment, this one is more geared toward what is in the best interest of the church than what is in the best interest of humanity.  Nevertheless, I do think there could be some value for humanity in general here.  I think that this could be about controlling ones temper.  At the same time, I think saying a curse word is a lot healthier than suppressing all anger until it explodes and takes casualties with it. 

4. Keep holy the Sabbath.

One day of rest for people is very practical and, I think, compassionate.  I think there are only two things atheists and theists would disagree about.  The first would be the day itself.  For atheists, it really doesn’t matter which day is our day of rest, provided that we do have at least one day.  Second, atheists obviously wouldn’t go to church and therefore not keep it “holy.”  The exception would be certain religions that do not mandate a belief in a god of any sort.  Buddhism and Unitarian Universalists come to mind. 

5. Honor thy father and mother.

Every major world religion mandates filial piety.  For the most part I would agree with this, provided that a person’s mother and father were not bad people and/or insane.  I think there are a great many Christian people who were told to hate people of a different race by their parents.  Those people did not follow that mandate.  Technically they would be guilty of a sin.  However, I doubt there’s any question that what the people did was correct, in spite of the “guidance” provided by the parents.   I would tend to think this mandate was designed more to perpetuate of the church than ethics or morality.   Nevertheless, there is a certain amount of wisdom in it.  Generally, parents know more than their children and know better.  What I really dislike about this mandate is that it doesn’t give the parents any guidance.  I would think that the flip side of this commandment would be “parents love your defiant adult children, but don’t interfere with their decisions.”  But then that would be more of a parent effectiveness blog and not a social commentary.

 

This blog will be continued next time, with the rest of the Commandments and the Golden Rule.

Pragmatic Politics

So Mitt Romney is going with Paul Ryan as a Vice President candidate.  There is no doubt that our country is a mess.  And as much as I really like Barack Obama, he does have some responsibility for it, although, given that the house has refused to let any of his programs pass for the past two years, it really isn’t fair to criticize him too much.  The fact is, as a result of the stoppage by the GOP, we really don’t know whether or not he’s a good president. 

In fact, the only program that has passed is the Affordable Care Act.  As someone who is battling advanced stage breast cancer, I can tell you that Obamacare is okay with me.  It’s better than what we have now- a system in which I had to shell out $30,000 last year in medical costs and am on schedule for a repeat of that again this year (and I have very good coverage).  Paul Ryan wants to cut Medicare, but as a U.S. Representative, he and his family have got coverage for life without paying any premiums. 

But the thing that really gets me about politics in the 21^st Century is that we seem to have lost sight of the goal:  a better country for all.  We are stuck in this dysfunctional system whereby the House seems to have a drinking problem (that would be a Kool-Aid drinking problem), the senate a gambling problem and SCOTUS is Bi-Polar.  On top of that we have a president who is much like the co-dependent mother- she’s trying to deal rationally (but ineffectually) with the situation, because she really doesn’t know how to deal with chaos. 

We used to be a country that was the envy of the rest of the world.  People had their ideals, but Washington was more concerned with the business of getting things done.  Did they overspend?  Yes.  But look at what we had:  the best schools, the best economy, the best work environment, the best social programs.  We began losing that when people started getting cheap and demanding lower taxes.  What got cut was all the stuff that made us shine. 

The idea that a good government can also be an efficient government is a conservative Utopian ideal.  It sounds good, but it’s not possible.  Well, actually, it is possible, but not in a free society.  If we want to give up our freedoms and let a dictator come in, no doubt our country’s governance will be much more cost effective, but then, we will also be a country that no one wants to live in. 

Often conservatives want to return to the America of our past- when, economically speaking, things were better for everyone.   However, the things that existed in that economic heyday were a 90% tax rate on the top 10% of earners and unions were at their strongest.  Ironically, the conservatives want this utopia back, but decry the very things that gave rise to it. 

Thom Hartmann often points out that in the 50’s and 60’s, the tax rate was 90% on the top earners, but that was only imposed upon wages over $300,000.  People who earned more than that, the “job creators,” would decide that instead of giving the money to the government, they would put the money back into their businesses.  They would create more jobs, give more benefits, take more risks and even donate more to charity.   It worked beautifully- as it was designed to. 

In addition, because of the high tax rate, there was more money for social programs.  It was the main reason why we were the envy of the world.  It was why we had no homeless people and why our schools were second to none. 

Now I’m not saying that we need to turn a blind eye on government spending.  Certainly we need to make sure that we aren’t paying $3,000 for toilet seats, but I think we need a return to pragmatic politics.  Instead of a $300,000 cap, let’s raise it to $3 million, but then impose a 75% tax rate on all monies earned over that.  I’d even be okay with getting rid of the inheritance tax if we went back to a system like that.

All Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney want is to dig our economic cesspool deeper by cutting taxes and spending.  They feed their followers the half-truth that big government is bad.  Too big of a government is bad.  However, too small of a government is just as bad, if not worse.  And that’s the problem we are facing.  Without a government to protect us from tyranny, we become vulnerable.  I can’t help but picture Romney and Ryan waiting in the wings, licking their chops, ready for the kill- their trophy: our democracy.