I will start off by saying, I am not religious. That doesn't change how society has bent the "rules" of religion throughout the years. Now, like I said I am not religious, and I had to do research to be able to talk about this. Please feel free to correct me if you believe I am wrong.
What I have come to understand is, there are these ten commandments that are supposed to be followed, but society in this day and age have kind of flipped them to their benefit. I will go through each and explain.
1. You shall have no other gods before me.
How I interrupt this is that there is only one god and you should only pray to one god. You should worship only one. Some would argue that they have not defied this rule. Yet people's need for material possession has erupted to an almost worship. Instead of praying before bed, people have started checking Facebook before bed. They put these possessions on a pedestal and cannot live a day without them. How many times have you heard, "I can't live a day without it" about people referring to their phones. This is my point.
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in 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 or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
In our society you see many pictures of what people think God looks like. This is against this commandment. People imagine what heaven looks like; they even draw pictures and show them around. Everyone has this image now, of what they believe heavenly things look like. This is directly against this commandment. If you go on Google or Facebook, or a bunch of other sites, I bet you can find memes of this too. People just take it as a joke.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Do not use the Lord's name in vain; I think this is a clear one to understand. Do not use the Lord's name in a bad way. Like Oh My God, I can't believe people do that, right? Like Jesus Christ. I swear to God, I will kill the next person that I hear use the Lord's name in vain. I think that proves my point enough.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
I think a lot of people would argue that this one we keep true. On Sundays all government buildings are closed. All other stores close early. It is the day most people have off work. But this isn't all true. First of all, so many people still work on Sundays. Life does not break just because it is Sunday. In this society, we cannot take a day off. You also have to remember something. Sunday is not the seventh day. It is really Saturday. Society switched the days around in a way that seems more convenient. So in truth, not only do we not celebrate the Sabbath day any more, but most people do not know the actual day of Sabbath.
5. Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
This is something a lot of people do not follow. So many families remain broken and unfix-able. There is no true respect for parents any more in a lot of cases at least. You can also look at a parent's betrayal to their children. A lot of parents will abandon their children and not give them a chance to be honour.
6. You shall not murder.
This one we do keep, right? Murder is wrong. This we can agree on. And the people that -do- murder, get punished. So this one we definitely keep. Wrong. Let's think of mercy killing for a moment. Your grandmother is 97 years old, and your mother decides it is time for her to go to Heaven. The doctor gives her a shot in the arm, and she dies. Is this not murder? Society says that this type of murder is okay, but getting revenge on the guy that stole your heroin is wrong.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
This is something you see so often. I hate people that cheat, as does almost everyone. Yet it happens every day. Society does not treat this as a horrible thing. They joke about it on television shows or movies, and they do not take it serious. I think it is a serious crime, and I'm sure a lot of people would agree.
8. You shall not steal.
I think everyone steals. In this society it is so easy to download movies and television shows online without getting caught. It is more than this though. People still ideas, concepts, almost everything. Plagiarism is a huge issue in intuitions now a day. Teachers and professors have to take extreme precautions to stop theft.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
The way I interrupt this is you are not to judge someone if you do not truly know them. We do this everyday. This first time you meet someone you instantly have an impression of them Even people you have never met before. You judge them by appearance. There are a lot of people that you have probably seen in passing and you think you know them. Yet, you have never spoken to them. They tell a story based on how they dress, and how they act. This can be unfair, and often untrue.
Now a day you can walk into a corner store, and if you are a teenager, you will be watched. This is because adults judge all younger people to be bad, villainous. There is nothing you can do to stop the judging, it will just always happen.
10. You shall not covet your neighbour's house; you shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbour's
So, I see this as you should not want what other people have and you don't have. You should be happy with what you have and deal with that. This is not true in our society either. Society tells us we should always want the next step in technology. The next "toy" that comes out must be owned. You must always compete with the ones around you. You have to have the best car, the best phone, etc.
Websites:
http://catholicharboroffaithandmorals.com/Second.html
http://msc.gutenberg.edu/2001/02/understanding-the-second-commandment/
http://www.godstenlaws.com/ten-commandments/#.UVXFpRxORn4
http://www.tencommandments.org/
http://yankeeroo.hubpages.com/hub/Does-society-follow-the-Ten-Commandments
Pictures:
s-giacomazzi.blogspot.com
www.sacredheartyouth.net
www.cartoonstock.com
ivehadanepiphany.blogspot.com
fleasnobbery.blogspot.com
I don't really know much about Christianity, but I agree with you. There aren't many people that can follow each and every single one of these commandments. Even if there was a person that did, we'd probably label them as weird. That they're to pure or something. It's quite hypocritical.
ReplyDeleteThe days of literal bible reading are over, and people need to realize that. People criticize others for getting tattoos because it says not to in the bible; it says in the very same paragraph that you're not supposed to cut the sides of your hair. How can people argue so wholeheartedly for one thing, while at the same time omit scripture?
ReplyDeleteVery interesting topic that you chose, what inspired you to choose it? I agree with you on most of these points as well, most of these commandments have become ignored or changed over time. Some now seem to be rarely followed. If anyone ever tells you they haven't broken any of these rules they are lying.
ReplyDeleteI'm not Christian, but I've always been interested in the idea of Christianity. I decided to write about this topic to give me a reason to do some research and actually learn something knew.
DeleteThe thing is that times are changing and we kind of need to adapt our guidelines to fit with that. We're not in biblical times so some things like Chase's tatto and haircut example just don't work anymore. Obviously some are still very aplicable, like don't cheat and don't murder (although the example of mercy killing that you presented is debatable - is that necessarily wrong?) But I feel like others can have more leniency, like the Sabbath one and the don't want what other people have.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Christianity is often very hypocritical though!