Among other reasons, it’s a very defective list
Not too long ago I saw a funny comment on social media, in the wake of recent pressures to have the Ten Commandments displayed in school classrooms: “The adultery rate among teenage boys and girls has fallen dramatically since these holy commandments have been put back in schools.” Never mind, I suppose, that the violation of church/state separation has increased. But the devout champions of this ancient law code seem not to notice that it is crippled with defects. It is so hard to take it seriously.
Please notice, for example, the problems presented by the first four commandments, which are focused on protecting the fragile divine ego. It is very much a petty tribal god that is depicted here. In fact, this god has a name, YHWH, with vowels inserted to produce Yahweh. One sect uses different letters, JHVH—with different vowels: Jehovah. Modern translators are a sneaky bunch, aware that the faithful aren’t used to their god having a name, so they render YHWH as “LORD.” Hence the Hebrew, “I am YHWH your god” becomes, “I am the LORD your god.” At the end of this first commandment we find a stern warning: “You shall have no other gods before/beside me.”
The ancient theologians who created this code—derived from much earlier law codes—knew very well that there many competitor gods, hence the warning to shun them all, because Yahweh was indeed a very jealous god.
The second commandment forbids the making of idols resembling anything that is in heaven above, or on the earth, or even in the water under the earth. But the show-business side of Christianity has ignored this commandment massively. The ecclesiastical bureaucracy knows the value of razzle-dazzle, hence the compulsion to build churches and massive cathedrals throughout the world. These buildings are filled with art, statuary—huge crosses with Jesus hanging on them—stained glass windows, elaborately fashioned organs.
These all allow worshippers to see the glory of their god with their own eyes. Clergy wear special costumes, with Catholic clergy being the champions in this contest. Popes and cardinals walk around during the ceremonies dressed in over-the-top elaborate dresses and lace.
We have also seen the colossal statutes of Mary carried aloft in churches and in the streets. These are all examples of idols created to encourage belief, despite the severe warning at the end of the second commandment, that this jealous god will punish violators to the third and fourth generations.
The third commandment is yet another warning: not to misuse the Yahweh’s name. This idea belongs to the ancient world view that the gods resided in a heavenly realm that was overhead, and from this handy position they could monitor the behavior—even words spoken—by their worshippers. But we now know that the Cosmos is huge, beyond anything the ancients could have imagined, indeed beyond anything most folks today can imagine. So how likely is it that a Master Creator God is monitoring what humans on one tiny, very isolated planet are saying?
The fourth commandment also derives from ancient mythology. Since Yahweh rested on the seventh day—after bringing all creation into existence—he orders that humans, and even livestock, respect the sacred day of rest. It would be hard to imagine a commandment that has been more widely ignored, violated. How many churchgoers remain unaware of the findings of science regarding how the Cosmos and our planet came into existence? So many of them must grasp that the six-day creation myth cannot be sustained. Hence it is just a part of modern life that millions of humans work on the seventh day, e.g., doctors, nurses, police, firefighters, employees of businesses—the list is endless. How can any intelligent person imagine that a god named Yahweh is annoyed by all this?
This commandment must rank as the dumbest of them all.
The remaining commandments all have some merit. 5: honor your father and your mother; 6: don’t murder or kill; 7: don’t commit adultery; 8: don’t steal; 9: don’t bear false witness against your neighbor; 10: don’t covet your neighbor’s house, or wife, his male or female slaves.
These words prompt us to realize that there are major omissions from this famous list of commandments. Let’s consider several:
1. You shall not own slaves. Slavery is an abomination to your god.
2. You shall not hate people whose skin is a different color, who belong to another tribe or nation, or who have a religion different from yours.
3. You shall not regard females as inferior beings. Accord to females the rights and privileges that are considered normal and appropriate for males.
4. You shall not despise women who love women, and men who love men. Treat them all with love and respect.
5. You shall not go to war against other tribes and nations. Yes, you shall not kill or murder, but do not engage in the massive killing that war entails.
6. Be relentlessly curious about the world and how it actually works. Always try to be in a learning mode, unsatisfied with the so-called wisdom put into your mind when you were a child.
This last new commandment is designed to push humanity along in its quest to find out how the world and the cosmos really work. The ancient theologians—loyal to a jealous tribal deity—who fashioned the Ten Commandments, had no clue about reality. So many centuries of dangerous ignorance could have been eliminated if humans had discovered how to build microscopes, and what to look for using them; how to build telescopes, and what to look for using them. If humans had grasped the power of curiosity unfettered by religious biases and restrictions.
Which brings us to another point: not only are crucial commandments missing from this famous list of ten, but the deity who supposedly inspired the Bible failed to include a massive book with crucial information for human health and well-being. Tim Sledge, in his 2019 book Four Disturbing Questions with One Simple Answer: Breaking the Spell of Christian Belief, has a chapter titled, The Germ Warfare Question. Here he wonders why Jesus failed to mention germs. “God had been watching silently for thousands of years by the time Jesus came along. It was late in the game, but couldn’t the Son of God—the one described as the Great Physician—have made a greater
We can ask the same question about the theologians who wrote their books long before Jesus arrived. If the deity who is behind the Bible is not a petty, jealous tribal god, but an all-powerful, all-knowing, loving creator god who—as the faithful seem to believe—has the whole world in his hands, why isn’t there a major book in the Bible providing solid information on how to discover the fundamentals of human health? Just think: the Black Plague of the 14th century—which killed one-third to one-fourth of the human population between India and England—could have been prevented. There wouldn’t have been a need for the church wailing about sin being the cause. This major book of the Bible could also have helped people figure out how the world and cosmos at large actually works.
So not only are the Ten Commandments severely defective, but the Bible itself is a major disappointment. This is hardly a surprise: Many of the once-devout have headed for the exit after carefully reading the Bible cover-to-cover. It doesn’t deserve the reputation the clergy brag about—nor does it deserve its place of honor on the altar in so many churches.
David Madison was a pastor in the Methodist Church for nine years, and has a PhD in Biblical Studies from Boston University. He is the author of Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief: a Minister-Turned-Atheist Shows Why You Should Ditch the Faith, now being reissued in several volumes:
· Guessing About God (2023),
· Ten Things Christians Wish Jesus Hadn’t Taught: And Other Reasons to Question His Words (2021). The Spanish translation of this book is also available.
· Everything You Need to Know About Prayer But May Not Want to Admit (2025)
His YouTube channel is here. At the invitation of John Loftus, he has written for the Debunking Christianity Blog since 2016.
The Cure-for-Christianity Library©, now with more than 500 titles, is here. A brief video explanation of the Library is here.
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