The Ten Commandments are Convenient

First off, this is a thought experiment (not an argument against Christianity). It is something I concocted, someone else may have thought of it before me, but I have not read about it if they have.
My belief is that all religious belief began as a primitive science. This was used for the purpose of explaining the unexplainable. Yet again (see my previous philosophy post), we as humans were not willing to accept that questions could not be answered and accepted religion due to lack of any better explanation. Of course the reason so many things were unexplainable was due to the lack of modern science.
Overtime it became apparent that religion was a great form of both control and power.
This then lead to an opportunity for those in command of the religion. The more followers they could obtain, the more powerful the religion would become.
Religions evolved and changed, old religions disappeared and new religions were created. The religions that ‘succeeded’, succeeded because of two things. They used fear to scare those who did not follow their commands/laws, and created rewards for those who followed the religion.
Christianity is one of these religions, you are sent to hell for sins (disobeying the ten commandments) and are sent to heaven for your loyalty (obeying the ten commandments). The key thing to notice is that both the reward and the punishment are not tangible. They are claims made by Christianity that cannot be proven or disproved by anyone. It is for this reason they are such powerful claims, because they cost nothing, are not tangible and cannot be disproved.
So why are the Ten Commandments convenient? I believe they were not designed to better those who believe but to maximise the religions followers. Any benefit from these laws that we receive, was simply a nice bonus and in addition makes these commandments more appealing to the good in us. Let me explain by looking at a few…
“Neither shall you commit adultery.”
Adultery is the breaking of the holy bond between husband and wife, and is thus a sacrilege. This commandment includes not just the act of adultery, but lust as well.
Why does this benefit the religion? Simple, children raised in a family household, where the mother and father are Christian, will likely lead to children who are also Christian. Adultery is outside of marriage and often leads to divorce, breaking the best environment to ‘spawn’ the next generation of Christians. Once married Christianity encourages having children, in fact, having as many children as possible is of benefit to the religion. These commandments also forbid homosexuality, as homosexual couples cannot have children to assist furthering the Christian faith. Thus marriage is an important part of maintaining the religion.
“You shall not murder.” And “Neither shall you steal.”
The reason for this is obvious, if Christian’s murder, they would have been executed ancient times. Worshippers who are dead are of no value to the religion. This then goes beyond murder in modern religion. Suicide is also considered murder and is thus outlawed. This is a highly convenient ‘law’, as lets face it, if we truly believed (belief with 100% certainty) that when we died we went to heaven, where we were eternally happy wouldn’t we all want to get their as fast as possible? But then there would be no more Christian believers, so this cannot be allowed to happen.
But if your still not convinced… I love saving the best for last.
“I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me… ..”
This is the icing on the cake, you may not believe in any other Gods (competing religions). Undoubtedly, for the sole purpose of, being the only religion in your set of beliefs. Pretty blatant anti competitive practice, makes me wonder if the commerce commission is onto them.
Well that’s pretty much the end of the point I am trying to make, as you can see it’s not an argument merely a thought experiment, with the hope of waking you up as to why the Ten Commandments might exist. I understand some of the Ten Commandments are actually very good laws to uphold by. We should not murder, we should not steal, but at the same time to be a good human being we should not need the threat of hell and the reward of heaven to both realise these are good laws and to follow them. As for the others? No sex outside of marriage, for me personally I cannot understand why marriage is a requirement to have sex. After all, it is simply a piece of paper and a few spoken vows, do we really need to sign a legal document to not cheat on our loved one. I really hope not.

On a side note: Modern Christians really get on my nerves where they pick and choose which of the ten commandments to follow, either you go to hell or you don’t, you follow all these laws or you don’t. If you don’t believe/follow all the ten commandments then are you truly Christian?

Well this has wasted a lot of valuable WoW playing time, hope you enjoyed the post.

The Philosophy of Nizmox

On Friday night I had a discussion/debate/argument with my flatmate regarding many philosophical topics.
I would like to point out something I feel is important. When involved in these kinds of debates, there are pretty much two kinds of people. Those who can have debates and understand that it is… just that, a debate… and those who can’t. Those that should debate and those that shouldn’t. Sadly some people cannot, realise that it is just a difference in views, and that debating the topic is actually beneficial for both parties. Each, can seek to further their thoughts by listening to and arguing the points that others have on the same topic. These people get angry at having their views challenged, or even because they are being argued with. These people annoy me…
Fortunately! My flatmate was not one of these individuals, as I already knew.
A brief intro to my beliefs…
I believe there is nothing non physical and everything in the universe can be explained without the need for any non physical force/object/entity/whatever. Whether that explanation comes from Chemistry, Physics or even Quantum Physics. That’s not to say there is always an available explanation for everything, simply due to the limit of our knowledge of science. Our science will never progress to the point where we know everything as we are sadly never going to be able to unravel all of the mysteries the universe holds. However… absence of an explanation does not equal something being unexplainable.
Unfortunately, we, as human beings find it difficult to cope with saying “I don’t know” and it is because of this, we often end up creating explanations with no/little evidence to support this explanation, or using someone else’s explanations which was conjured in the same manner. When in fact we are better off saying “I don’t know” until presented with a good explanation, with sound logic and reasoning. It is because of this that Religion largely ‘succeeds’ (has many believers). Theories such as the Big Bang and Evolution, leave questions unanswered, yet despite having scientific backing people choose to instead believe religious theories. While Religious theories do explain the whole picture, as an all powerful, all knowing being could create the universe, these theories have NO scientific backing what so ever.
Well that took a lot longer to write than I thought it would so will stop here, will write about the below topics soon.
Evidence of paranormal phenomenon.
Letting trivial bullshit get the better of us…

I realise my views greatly different to most people. Generally those who do not believe in a god(s) still believe in non physical things. I… Don’t. Feel free to tell me your thoughts with your comments, remember I wont get angry because of it and be prepared to say “I don’t know” a bit more often, those who do are smarter than they seem.