Jainism has moral principles not unlike the ten commandments that state “Do not injure, abuse, oppress, enslave, insult, torment, torture or kill any creature or living being.” Just imagine if God had delivered that to moses instead of the ten commandments. No inquisition, no salem witch trials, no (or a less powerful) klan, no crusades.
Instead, god told humanity – in his infinite wisdom – “don’t swear,” “worship me,” and “don’t work on weekends.” Sure, there are some commandments that could actually be considered messages related to morality (don’t kill, don’t steal, don’t lie), but they are all common sense and things we are born with. if someone was raised secular his whole life, would that mean he could – without blinking or feeling anything – torture-murder an innocent 3 year old? of course not.
there have been people in history – although few – who really wouldn’t feel bad about doing such a thing. has the ten commandments ever helped any of these people or stopped them from commiting such atrocities? charlie manson, for example. if he had read the ten commandments before his homicidal escapades, would that have stopped him from committing them? (in fact, the bible has inspired many of these atrocities)
the person that talks better game is always right in our society – this is shown by how lawyers can get guilty parties off the hook – couldn’t an infinitely powerful and intelligent being phrase his commandments in such a way that they would stop crimes that would be committed by those who read them? he should be able to talk better game than anyone else that has ever existed, but his ultimate messages to humanity were phrased in thoroughly uninspiring terms like “thou shalt not kill.”
the first four commandments all deal with how you should worship and honor God above anything else. does an all-powerful, all-good, and all-knowing being really need such gratification from lesser beings? is he that dependent and arrogant?
you could counteract that this by saying that old testament principles are outdated or were nullified by jesus’ teachings. However, Jesus explicitly states that – until Armageddon – everyone should obey the laws of the old testament, less they be shamed and held in low regard in the afterlife.
(From Matthew 5: 18-20)
“For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law [the laws of the Pharisees and Judaism which are taken from the Old Testament] until all is accomplished. Whoever relaxes one of the least of these [laws] and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom… but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great.”
even if the commandments are straight from god’s mouth, even if they were delivered to moses by god, does it really make sense to govern our 21st century based on obvious and poorly written rules from thousands and thousands of years ago?
