The Ten Commandments As Applied Today

1. This first one forbids worshiping of all foreign Gods. A man who said the Jewish God was only for the Jews delivered this to the Hebrew people. This could only mean that the worship of the God of Christians is forbidden.

2. The second one forbids the worshipping of false images. The God of the Jews ordered this. Jesus depicted on the cross would be a false image.

3. The third forbids using the name of God in a derogatory manner. Today we often hear Christians curse their enemies using God’s name.

4. The fourth orders us to remember the Sabbath and keep it Holy. The vast majority of business activity in Christian countries today is no different on Sunday than the rest of the week.

5. The fifth demands that we honor our parents. This still happens but many today are not willing to honor anyone or anything.

6. The sixth forbids us to murder another person, No one seems to believe in this one anymore. We are constantly sending our young people off to kill all our enemies.

7. The seventh forbids adultery. Christians who wind up in bad marriages have always ignored this one. Technically, it also forbids the having of more than one wife, which was common through history and still happens in many countries.

8. The eighth forbids theft. This one still makes sense but is one of the most often violated.

9. The ninth forbids us to tell lies. Everyone lies about some things and sometimes we even lie to ourselves.

10. The tenth forbids coveting, which is the mental desiring of something that belongs to another. This one was never practical. No one can control their mental impulses to desire something that attracts them. We can only control our actions and never our thoughts.

I have come to accept that the world I live in is constantly changing. As a cranky-old-man of seventy-one years, I have seen many of these changes. Some of the changes I believe are for the betterment of mankind, while some seem degrading to the human condition. It does not matter how I judge the world's changing because I must live with it anyway.

I think we can compare the evolution of mankind's civilization to the biological evolution of all living things on our planet. Only the most successful changes will survive and advance into the future. Some societies will become extinct if they cannot adapt to the changing world.

We can not be sure that the recorded history of man is accurate but it does show that we are rapidly gaining knowledge of the Universe in which we live. Gaining knowledge is like a snowball rolling down a hill. The rate of increase is not linear and quickly mushrooms to tremendous size. This has resulted in older individuals losing understanding of the younger generation and creates considerable friction at times.

As small as it may be, we do have a little control over the direction we are traveling as a society. It is all important that we abandon our superstitious fantasies and always seek the truth. Mankind's advancement has been greatly retarded by superstitious beliefs; especially religion.
Early Christianity retarded scientific advancement by approximately 1500 years because they taught that the world would soon come to an end so there was no need to advance man's knowledge.

When faced with any phenomena that defies explanation we must learn to say, "I don't know." Too many people will use superstitious beliefs to provide an answer because they refuse to say, "I don't know." When we devote our time to finding the truth we always have more productive and meaningful lives.