Posted by Hemant Mehta in Blog reader Cameron offers these (non-religious) Ten Commandments that we all can follow.
- When faced with any viewpoint or choice, consider and weigh the merits of each opposing angle with your own.
- Do not make conclusions when ignorance is involved.
- Judge individuals by individual actions only and recognize when change alters their stature.
- Make everything you do and say a showcase of your capability.
- Do not waste. Keep the use of resources and words at the necessity to succeed.
- Do not interfere with another’s right to succeed in any area at any level.
- Seize every opportunity to learn.
- Be open, be skeptical.
- Question everything and do all possible to find the answers.
- Do all possible to ensure the most peaceful, educated, and easy life for those around you and in future generations.
Short, sweet, and should be followed by everyone.
Nice.
Do any of these need to be revised?
What would you add to the list?
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
I’ve always been a fan of Steve Allen’s Ten New Commandments. They are:
Not as short-and-sweet … but surely as universal.
Here is one.
11. If you are an adult and you still need commandments to instruct you on how to be moral, don’t bother reading.
Thou shalt not be led by any other than your intellect.
Thou shalt not coerce another to follow you or your cause.
I like explaining to Christians and others that I feel the “Golden rule” is axiomatically flawed from the get go, especially if your suicidal. As (Yip) Harberg (1896-1981) wrote: Love thy neighbor as thy self, keep that motto on the shelf, let it lie there, keep it idle, especially if you’re suicidal. I especially like the “Platinum Rule” that Atheist Michael Scott Earl advocated in his Bible Stories Your Parent Never Taught You. Do unto others as they would have done unto themselves. This is the general rule that I think about when doing things for others. Axiomatically it just makes more sense to me.
Why not make it short and sweet: Do onto others (including nature) as you would have them/it do onto you and seek knowledge in all things with love, compassion, and reason? Yes, it could be construde as religious, but I think it would apply to everyone, as well as everything, and it certainly shortens the list quite a bit.
If these “rules” were valuable and made sense (I think they do) and the audience are thinking adults then they shouldn’t be Commandments.
The only time you need Commandments are when the rules are a grab bag of nonsense or when you’re dealing with moral juveniles who can’t reason through moral decisions on their own and only respond to orders. I guess this list was compiled as a joke or a demonstration that the 10 Commandments of the bible (or is it 20 or 30, how do you count?) are not such a great example of moral clarity, but it still treats us as children.
This list is just as impossible to obey as the original.
And didn’t the Buddhists have a version of the Golden Rule that made more sense? “Don’t do unto others what you would not have done to you.”
I like George Carlin’s shortening of the original 10.
Something like: 1.- be honest. 2. – try not to hurt anyone.
Hear! Hear! Vincent.
Similar to what I said, only even shorter than what I said. 
Interesting lists. I like Peter Singer’s ideas of extending our compassion to creatures beyond our own species. I love humanist ideals, but the one flaw I find is the central focus on “human”. (I am assuming the “others” in the lists above is intended to mean “other humans”.) If you are an atheistic naturalist then you should understand there is no clear border between humans and other animals, so why shouldn’t the golden rule and these new ethical “commandments” be extended to them?
Yes I am a hypocritical meat eater, but I might not always be. I’m still mulling things over.
Can anyone think of a name for a positive ethical philosophy along the lines of Humanism, but with a broader scope to include all sentient creatures with the capacity to suffer?
Humanimalism. I don’t know it just rolled off my tongue.
Really, you’re asking us to apply commandment 9 to the commandments themselves.
It reminds me of someone trying to apply the principle of parsimony to the principle of parsimony. I think he’s still rather confused about all that.
This is list is exhausting. Seriously, if a person were to really try to live up to it, they wouldn’t get to work until after noon and lunch would be crowding bedtime. 4,7, and 9 alone would make it impossible for me to accomplish anything in a single day.
Plus, they are just plain preachy, too many to remember, and some repeat themselves.
So, let me propose something simpler still.
1) Be nice.
2) Use your brain.
What little the first one doesn’t cover, the second one should. Then I thought about how we live on a planet with only so many resources, and how we are only on it for so many years, so I added a third one.
3) Realize that there are limits.
I can’t think of many situations that those three don’t cover.
You only need one commandment:
1) Act to maximise the universe’s happiness.
The only tricky part is working out where to focus your efforts. Usually we need to push that focus futher away from ourselves.
Add: Question all commandments, starting with this one.
of even more practical value than the above:
- never get involved in a land war in Asia
- never go in against a Cicilian when death is on the line.