1. Forgive others their wrongs and focus more on the wrongs you have committed
2. Show compassion, sympathy, and kindness at every opportunity
3. Know that others have different views and try to understand them
4. Help others when they need and will accept help; be willing to sacrifice for others
5. Do not be arrogant
6. Use reason: seek knowledge, question information given to you, and think for yourself; always allow for the possibility that you may be wrong
7. Reign in your fear, anger, envy, greed, and jealousy; recognize them and do not act on them
8. Take responsibility for your actions, and do not use the actions of others to excuse yourself
9. Always try to work for the greater good, but first, do no harm
10. If you must judge others, judge them by their actions alone

Of course, the list need not stop at ten. One obvious omission I saw later is “one cannot avoid responsibility by doing nothing; inaction bears as much responsibility as action does when one has the ability to act.” I’m sure there could be more additions just as important.

I wrote this in a blog post in which I made the point that as a moral guide, the Ten Commandments is pretty useless; half is about upholding the authority of the church, and the other half is mostly really obvious stuff which people would know anyway; it’s not like people would have seen the tablets and gone, “Oh, stealing is WRONG! All this time I thought it was moral and just!”

The Ten Commandments, even at its best, is such a blunt tool that it’s useless in giving moral advice. How does “Thou shalt not steal” help when you are given the choice between stealing from people with excess or watching a starving child die?

I found it amusing that when I wrote that post, a commenter responded, “You [sic] impromptu list smacks of chutzpah after millenniums of consideration by the best minds in religion….” So many things wrong with that statement, the typo not being one of them.

Blog post reference–the preview choked on the link generated by the comment form, so I include it here: http://blogd.com/wp/index.php/archives/3273 (link

Amen.

I liked the theistic commandment

Always ask yourself, “What would Jesus do?” and then do what the church tells you to do.

Every time i hear WWJD i remeber this http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1424

Thank you SMBC

TJ,
Number 9 on your list is in conflict with number 7.

Fair enough, but the people I described in 9 are the ones who would violate number 7.

Medical limitations include mental limitations, which includes believers

There, that nailed it.

To Jeff: “Contrapositives” would necessarily require prescribing behavior.

The contrapositives I was thinking of are more along the lines of what Richard Wade posted. Just general principles. No behavioral specifics.

But as you, I’m not a big fan of making lists.