Interesting thought on the 10 commandments monument

I was thinking of a scenaio that demonstrates something funny.

If you had some actual artifact that had the 10 commandments on it and had it in a display that told something about it as a historical item, essentially put it in context, I wouldn't have a problem with that being in a courthouse.

But when you get some guy making a new monument and putting it out there to say, "I'm taking over", I find that offensive.

I fully agree

in Alabama.

for several reasons.

For one, how is it historical? Different Christian denominations have different versions of the "ten commandments". If you actually read the Bible, in no place do "ten" commandments jump out at you. You find lots of rules about how you can weave cloth and how you treat servants and such things, but which 10 rules do people mean? The Catholic version is different from the usual Protestant version.

The whole thing is biased toward a particular set of religions. If most people in this country were Buddhist, you might find someone wanting to set up a monument toward the Four Noble Truths.

It would tend to lend government force to a rule that people have to worship a god. As an atheist, I resent that.

It has rules that people wanting the monument violate constantly. For example, some see no contradiction between "Thou shalt not kill" and bombing people in Iraq who want the foreigners out of their country.

Hamaurabbi, etc. I don't mind some little educational curio. Look all over PA they have monuments for where historical events happened and people were from. I talking about that context.

Its a bit far fetched in that I can't think of any relevant existing ten commandments stone, but its a perspective.

It just demonstrates how progressives would approach things, versus how regressives would.

anything with chuck's fingerprints!
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Why should it be in a courthouse?

They have some very interesting things to say. Did you know that while the U.S. is the most religiously diverse country, southern Ontario is the most diverse region in the world?

Basically it makes the irrational fundies look like a bunch of cultists who don't understand their own holy book. :eyes:

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_10ci.htm

"There are three versions of the Decalogue mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures (a.k.a. Old Testament). All are different. They are at Exodus 20:2-17, Exodus 34:12-26, and Deuteronomy 5:6-21. The version in Exodus 20 is by far the most commonly cited.

Depending upon how Ten Commandments are interpreted, the Exodus 20 version contain a total of 19 to 25 separate instructions. These have been traditionally sorted into ten groups. Unfortunately, various faith groups sort them differently. This makes inter-faith dialog very difficult at times, and can cause conflicts over which version of the Decalogue is to be displayed.
.Although the Ten Commandments are held in high respect by many Christians, two of them are routinely broken by some Christian denominations -- at least if they are interpreted literally:
...

The prohibition against "any graven image, or any likeness of any thing...," if interpreted literally, would seem to forbid a wide range of objects, including a statue in a church, a cross, a crucifix, or even to a photograph of a person. However, many denominations do not interpret this passage in isolation or do not interpret it literally. This allows Eastern Orthodox churches to display icons, Roman Catholic churches to contains statues, and many Protestant churches to contain drawings and/or photographs.
Reserving the Sabbath (Saturday) as a day of rest. The vast majority of churches have their main services on Sunday. Only Sabbaterian denominations, like the Seventh Day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists, follow celebrate on Saturday.

...

There is a gap between what the Ten Commandments actually state, and what the public perceives that they say. Most people incorrectly believe that all of the Commandments govern moral behavior in society: to not lie, steal, commit adultery, etc. In reality, the first four commandments are religious in nature, uniquely related to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They are offensive to the followers of many other religions. Only the last six relate to moral behavior in society."

...I'll just wait and see if they succeed. If they do, I'll file to have this posted in the courthouse:



http://www.invisibledoor.com/paganman/elements/elements.html

The old arguments about why posting religious symbols on public property don't wash with the Christian right. My tactic is sort of akin to blackmail: take down your Christian religious symbols, or I will MAKE you post my pagan religious symbol with equal prominence.

If they refuse, I'll sue the county for religious discrimination and win. And make a bundle of cash. And get the Ten Commandments removed from the courthouse.

they are creating. And they think only their "religion" counts, most of them don't even understand their own bibles. In the 70's it was even dumbed down into words of one or two syllables in a version called "The Way".