I must say, as it concerns the 10 commandments issue, that I'm not so
concerned about the question of which text of the 10 commandments one
uses as I am the question of why anyone rationally believes that they
form the "basis of our laws" in the first place. At least 6 of the 10
commandments would be entirely unconstitutional if turned into laws in
this country, including all of the first five which are exclusively
religious proclamations (thou shalt have no other gods before me, no
graven images, taking god's name in vain, keeping the sabbath holy and
honoring thy mother and father, and "coveting" they neighbor's stuff). A
7th (thou shalt not commit adultery) would probably be unconstitutional
under Lawrence, and is not in our system a legitimate law (though
adultery is obviously wrong, it's not a criminal matter but a personal
one). An 8th (not bearing false witness) can be made into law in some
circumstances, such as perjury or libel, but not as a generalized rule.
Only the injunctions against murder and theft are clearly a part of the
law in the US and clearly constitutional as a general rule, and those
laws are universal to all societies regardless of whether they've even
heard of the Ten Commandments because no society could survive without
them.
I've never understood this often repeated cliche that our laws are based
on the ten commandments when at least 6 or the 10 are entirely forbidden
to be laws at all under our constitutional system. And in all the years
I've discussed this with people, I've never gotten a coherent answer to
that argument. I don't think most people who make the initial argument
even bother to think about it at all, it's just an empty truism.
Ed Brayton
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