Christopher Hitchens Revises The Ten Commandments

Vanity Fair:

What do we say when we want to revisit a long-standing policy or scheme that no longer seems to be serving us or has ceased to produce useful results? We begin by saying tentatively, "Well, it's not exactly written in stone." (Sometimes this comes out as "not set in stone.")

Read the whole story: Vanity Fair

Comments

[hyjanks]

11:12 AM on 03/09/2010

What do you know? Finally, an article not promoting the wonders of witches, Tooth Fairies, talisman, ghosts, spooks, gods . . . Santa's little helpers.
I guess Arianna finally got the impression that atheists actually exist and that they have something to say.
Perhaps someday in the near future I, as an atheist, can run for and attain high public office in our "secular" government, needn't worrying about the mob inspired by Leviticus storming my house with noose, buckets of tar, barrels of feathers and pitch forks at the ready.
Make that the far future . . .

[spinoza]

09:48 PM on 03/08/2010

The bible is an absurdly EASY TARGET for any intellectual... but Hitchens manages to slice and dice it with a special whimsy & aplomb. Yes, Htich's decalogue is far superior to the goofy musing of ignorant jews, claiming special supernatural status for their petty, callous, jealous and paternalistic "god".

Entertaining stuff!

[blogisti]

09:37 PM on 03/08/2010

We started with ten but now have tens of thousands of laws because 10 were woefully inadequate. Sorry I am not blaming you God, I am just sayin'. Obviously, rather than appear to the latest Moses type prophet over and over again throughout history I know you just found it easier to give us the ability to reason and think logically with the ability to codify to infinity. For that I say God bless you, God. Thanks for leaving us to grow up on our own. Some of us are still clinging to you I know but they can't help it. You know better than I that we all grow at our own rate, yes, and some barely grow at all.

[Dbos]

09:33 PM on 03/08/2010

Hope you don't get smited .

[edwcorey]

04:45 PM on 03/08/2010

When it comes to being "written in stone," monotheism was invented by Pharaoh Akhenaten, around 1350 BC, and the evidence is still standing. Among one of the many things the "Israelites" appropriated from Egypt, including circumcision, the so-called covenant between Abraham and Yahweh. That's in stone also (http://www.scribd.com/doc/16105584/Urology-doc-Circumcision).

[Tazirai]

04:07 PM on 03/08/2010

Even though I cant stand Hutchins personality much, The article is actually pretty good.

[joseph pereira]

10:59 AM on 03/21/2010

The problem I have with Christopher Hitchins's suggestion to radically revise the Ten Commandments is not so much the revision itself but his intent. It's quite clear he wants to eliminate God from the Ten Commandments. That's a problem because the only reason I want to abstain from stealing, committing adultery, coveting and killing off my enemies--provided I can figure out how not to get caught--is God. Without a belief in a power greater than mine, I have no reason to be good, because, like Hitchins suggests, I'm made that way in the first place.

[KarateKid]

12:57 PM on 03/08/2010

Organized religion is mind control. If someone chooses to have his mind controlled, that's no concern of mine as long as it's not forced on me or my loved ones.

[JamieNYC]

12:03 PM on 03/08/2010

Well said, Mr. Hitchens.

[K J Illy]

05:53 AM on 03/08/2010

War will end once all Faiths are removed from this planet ...every MAJOR war starting because of some crazy @sses "faith"

WW1 started because of a killing of a Duke by a muslim
WW2 Adolf stated goal from his infamous book " To remove the "God" of Abraham & replace him with his version of this made up "God".. Japan who Emperor was considered a "Living God" gave his blessing to start the war with the US
Crusades.. no need to give the fact pure war of 2 crazy faiths that went on for over 1000 yrs amazing

I can keep going oh how bout the so called "War on Terror" I fought back in 91 & that was the jumpoff I told my squad "This aint nuthn but the Crusades for the 21st century" And the funny part is that this new war based on faith has not really heated up yet. Just wait until all the player get in the game that includes Iran, Israel, Egypt, Syria & others. What do you really think we're not going to hit Iran? lololol I was there in the Gulf & I get many emails from people over there now serving. They're telling me things are getting worse not better.

[llisa]

02:51 AM on 03/08/2010

Those who claim that Hitchens is full of himself need this reality check:

He has never once said that god talks to him personally and has told him that he is going to a happy place after he dies while most others will burn in torment for eternity which we hear every day from christians. Talk about arrogance.

[joseph pereira]

11:01 AM on 03/21/2010

The problem I have with Christopher Hitchins's suggestion to radically revise the Ten Commandments is not so much the revision itself but his intent. It's quite clear he wants to eliminate God from the Ten Commandments. That's a problem because the only reason I want to abstain from stealing, committing adultery, coveting and killing off my enemies--provided I can figure out how not to get caught--is God. Without a belief in a power greater than mine, I have no reason to be good, because, like Hitchins suggests, I'm made that way in the first place.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

10:07 PM on 03/07/2010

Huh, that's actually a good article, a good examination of the cultural context and different ways to interpret the commandments today. I tend to avoid Hitchens' writing because of his ridiculous foreign policy positions that support the worst neocon tendencies, even though he is not one himself; also, I sometimes get turned off by his militant atheism. I'm atheist myself, but I (usually) prefer not to condemn people with genuine feelings, or proselytize my point of view (occasionally christian conservatives make me pissed enough to go on a sardonic rant). This is a very reasonable article, on an ancient moral code that does have some slight relevance today as a moral code, but also a lot of historical interest.

[rainbowblue]

01:34 AM on 03/08/2010

I thought similar too. I was actually wowed in that it wasn't as preachy (the true irony of militant atheism) as his usually works. I had a small problem with his cultural work, but it's more of a minor interpretation. (He implied that the ancient Hebrews weren't always monotheistic, which doesn't actually work in connection with the text. Basically, they believed in God and went to great pains to explain that while their may be other gods, those gods are irrelevant, and besides everyone is still subject to God's laws no matter whom they prey to. Basically, one could argue that they were monotheistic as a cultural identity while roaming around the polytheistic lands.)

[MichB1]

08:48 PM on 03/07/2010

More Fundamental Evangelical Atheist "scripture" falls from the lips of their principle primate.

[ArthurTwoShedsJackson]

06:59 PM on 03/07/2010

http://failblog.org/2010/03/07/lease-fail/

[ByersL]

03:43 PM on 03/07/2010

As only he could!! Hilarious.

[jozzie]

01:25 PM on 03/07/2010

It's always bothered me how obviously the entire Old Testament is man-made. If it were divinely-inspired those old dudes would have known how procreation works. They thought men carried the seed and women were like fertile or infertile plots of land that they had to plant the seed in. Notice how when there is infertiltiy in Torah it's always the woman's fault.

So there were no eggs as far as they were concerned, or sperm—just seed. And they didn't even know that seeds in nature are born of male and female pollination. No wonder they thought children were the man's property, along with the "plot of land" woman they married.

You know, they should have known, because if an infertile man kept marrying consecutive women in order to spawn, and no woman worked, then they should have figured it out. But guess what? They never admitted it.