The 10 commandments: What true downers they all are

First of all, I want to clarify that I am do not believe in any literal gods and I see the Bible as a set of stories and metaphors about human behavior and the ideal way to conduct your life. I believe Christianity and its values were essential in the formulation of Western civilization, the most successful society in the history of the world, and that the ten commandments are extremely valuable principles for living a good life. Fundamentalist Christians look at the Bible as a literal document, and a problem arises when scientific atheists accept that interpretation but deny its validity. It is certainly invalid, but there's a second way of interpreting it that neither of them acknowledges, or at least not the scientific atheists. Science tells us what things are, not how we should act, and I believe the correct way of interpreting the Bible is as a set of mythological stories about how you should act. This is not necessarily the only truth about the Bible and religion, but it's the one I'm concerned with for the purposes of this debate. [b]1. I am the Lord Your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.[/b] The reason the first commandment is so important is to push the idea of transcendent moral values. Throughout the Bible, there is a central message that "God is good," which is pushed constantly. It invokes the theme of divine figure which is perfect and ideal in every way, and if you accept that premise, you"d naturally want to be as much like God as possible, which is exactly what Christ models. A human who lived an ideal, transcendent life, which we should all strive for. It also reinforces the idea that people should be free to pursue that life. The Bible states that God freed the Hebrew people from being enslaved, and the idea of individual freedom is the driving force behind Western society, which is brought up again in several commandments. [b]2. You shall have no other gods beside Me. You shall not make for yourself any graven image, nor any manner of likeness, of any thing that is heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them, for I, the Lord Your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.[/b] The idea that we should not recognize any institution, government, person, or group as a transcendent or divine is valid. This once again invokes the idea of personal liberty. We should not give the government control over our lives, we should not give a king or queen absolute power, et cetera. This is why we have a bill of rights, and a constitution limiting the scope of the government's power. This is why we have (and should have more) term limits. It's also about humility, and recognizing that you are not, and will never be perfect. [b]3. You shall not take the name of the Lord Your God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.[/b] You should not do or say bad things in the name of God. It does not make you innocent if you do bad in the name of good, and again, no one is above the law. [b]4. Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath unto the Lord Your God, in it you shall not do any manner of work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your man-servant, nor your maid-servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.[/b] There are quite a few ways of looking at this. The most simple one is that you should give yourself time to rest, but it also brings up the idea of holiness, and to me this means you should take the time to examine you life and ensure what you are doing with it is as ideal as possible. [b]5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord God gives you.[/b] This one is very complicated, and my understanding of what it means was formulated in part by the Biblical lectures by Jordan B Peterson which are on YouTube if you want to see them. The literal way of looking at this is obviously that you should respect your mother and father, but it's also about your cultural mother and father, because like your actual parents, your societal culture made you who you are, and you shouldn't trivialize that. The last part of this commandment is very important. "that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord God gives you." Assuming your society is functional to an extent, the idea of completing overturning your culture is very dangerous. When you recognize flaws in it, even if they're massive, you shouldn't call entire culture, you should make adjustments, because if you try to completely overturn a lifestyle, or throw out the old gods so to speak, the new gods will likely be much more dangerous than you anticipate. A culture is not arbitrary, and unless you have an extremely good reason, you should pretty much follow the traditional lifestyle, because there's more reason to it than you think. To give a concrete example, most of the world was relatively capitalist prior to the 20th century, and it was fairly successful and functional, however, the Russians had recognized flaws in this lifestyle, and completely overturned it rather than making conservative adjustments. Look how it turned out for them. [b]6. You shall not murder.[/b] Murder, not kill. As far as I can tell, you have no criticism for this commandment in itself. This again emphasizes individualism, and the idea that an individual life and its freedoms are important. The fact that God violates this commandment in the Bible's stories is irrelevant to whether or not it is a good commandment. [b]7. You shall not commit adultery.[/b] Perfectly valid principle for a good life. Adultery destroys trust, and trust is important in relationships and families. [b]8. You shall not steal.[/b] Property rights and individualism. Taking someone else's property without their consent is wrong, and rightfully against the law. [b]9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.[/b] Honesty and trust, basic Western values. [b]10. You shall not covet your neighbor"s house, nor his wife, his man-servant, his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his [debate.org wouldn't let me submit this word lol], nor anything that is your neighbor's.[/b] You argue that this is against freedom of choice. I certainly wouldn't want some of these commandments put into law, but that doesn't mean they aren't totally reasonable and ethical guidelines to live a good life, and removing envy from your life seems to be a good guideline.