Lexi,
I would like to think all persons alive today would hold to those values, but it is obviously not the case as stabbings, shootings occurr every day in our Australian society. The thing is most of us in Western culture have been condition by Judeau-Christian ethics.

When you look at Middle Eastern cultures they feel a responsibility to kill, rape and steal from kafir. For them to kill it is legitimate service to their god, as they do not see kafir as equal humans. Many Radical Muslims in Indonesia have killed peace loving unbelievers and Christians and they have the approval of the military. Witness what is happening in Egypt to Coptic Christians. The Western values are not innate they must be taught the value of every life including an opponent.

http://secure.afa.net/afa/activism/takeaction.asp?id=384

Philo:

"Christian, dost thou see them
On the holy ground?
How the troops of Midian
Prowl and prowl around?
Christian, up and smite them.
Counting gain but loss;
Smite them by the merit
Of the holy cross."

Much has been done in the name of religion. Yet most people live decent, peaceful lives, in spite of it. The problems in the Middle East are complex - and should be discussed on another thread. Enjoy your week-end.

Lexi,
Obviously for you it is irrelavent to talk about Ethics on what is current human behaviour. Your quote is not from the teachings of Christ but some pseudo religion that has no place in a Christ like society.

The discussion of religious Ethics is very relative to this thread. For you to try and identify me with some ungodly tag "Christian" which has nothing to do with the character of Christ shows your short sightedness on human motivation. A large part of human population is motivated by the ethical teaching of Mohamet.

Lexi

Thank you for the 10 commandments which are relevant to everyone irrespective of religion, race or whether one follows no formal religious dogma.

I find Philo's uncritical acceptance of the Abrahamic 10 Commandments, quite sad - indicating a lack of critical discernment.

The first 4 of the biblical commandments are entirely concerned with the ego of a deity and have nothing to do with ethics or morality:

ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.'

TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--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.'

THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.'

FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'

The remainder have relevance if one disregards the anachronistic terminology and are better elaborated in Lexi's list.

FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.'

SIX: 'You shall not murder.'

SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.'

EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.'

NINE: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.'

TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.'

Therefore, in conclusion, the Abrahamic religions have only 6 edicts none of which includes the golden rule, which has been elaborated by the first 4 of New 10 Commandments.

I don't expect to change Philo's mind. However, many others who follow these pages can decide for themselves, which is the point of this website - as long as you don't disagree with the moderator.

:)

J Parker,

Thank You. I am disappointed that Philo doesn't seem to grasp what's being said - and takes it as an attack on Christianity. It has to be admitted that absolutism is far from dead, It seems to rule the minds of a great number of people in the world today. Such absolutism nearly always results from strong religious faith. Anyway, I've had enough of this discussion and I'm beginning to see that nothing constructive will be achieved by continuing with it. I'm not interested in a slanging match or personal insults. Hopefully I shall see you on another thread.

J Parker,
So I assume
1. that you do not have vision or devotion to the highest ideals of character and behaviour. That you will accept any standard. God is spirit manifest in human attitude and behaviour upon which we humans are designed.
2. that you do not give your devotion to character but rather to made objects like money, cars etc
3. That you prefer to degrade holy character and a persons character
Name in Hebrew thought refers to character.
4. That you do not take any time off work for rest or holidays [holy days].

So in your terms of ethics you ignore ideals of human character, devotion to envisaging the highest view of character and rest from work. What a low view of society you operate under.