Comments on: Universal Commandments

By: Kenneth Rapp

Kenneth Rapp — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 04:18:17 +0000

of even more practical value than the above:

- never get involved in a land war in Asia

- never go in against a Cicilian when death is on the line.

By: Richard Wade

Richard Wade — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:52:14 +0000

Add: Question all commandments, starting with this one.

By: Mike Higginbottom

Mike Higginbottom — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:36:14 +0000

You only need one commandment:

1) Act to maximise the universe’s happiness.

The only tricky part is working out where to focus your efforts. Usually we need to push that focus futher away from ourselves.

By: Claire

Claire — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 18:00:27 +0000

This is list is exhausting. Seriously, if a person were to really try to live up to it, they wouldn’t get to work until after noon and lunch would be crowding bedtime. 4,7, and 9 alone would make it impossible for me to accomplish anything in a single day.

Plus, they are just plain preachy, too many to remember, and some repeat themselves.

So, let me propose something simpler still.

1) Be nice.
2) Use your brain.

What little the first one doesn’t cover, the second one should. Then I thought about how we live on a planet with only so many resources, and how we are only on it for so many years, so I added a third one.

3) Realize that there are limits.

I can’t think of many situations that those three don’t cover.

By: Josh Charles

Josh Charles — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:19:02 +0000

Really, you’re asking us to apply commandment 9 to the commandments themselves.

It reminds me of someone trying to apply the principle of parsimony to the principle of parsimony. I think he’s still rather confused about all that.

By: James Koran

James Koran — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 17:07:33 +0000

Humanimalism. I don’t know it just rolled off my tongue.

By: NYCatheist

NYCatheist — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:46:52 +0000

Interesting lists. I like Peter Singer’s ideas of extending our compassion to creatures beyond our own species. I love humanist ideals, but the one flaw I find is the central focus on “human”. (I am assuming the “others” in the lists above is intended to mean “other humans”.) If you are an atheistic naturalist then you should understand there is no clear border between humans and other animals, so why shouldn’t the golden rule and these new ethical “commandments” be extended to them?

Yes I am a hypocritical meat eater, but I might not always be. I’m still mulling things over.

Can anyone think of a name for a positive ethical philosophy along the lines of Humanism, but with a broader scope to include all sentient creatures with the capacity to suffer?

By: Mriana

Mriana — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:08:16 +0000

Hear! Hear! Vincent. Similar to what I said, only even shorter than what I said.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 16:05:01 +0000

This list is just as impossible to obey as the original.

And didn’t the Buddhists have a version of the Golden Rule that made more sense? “Don’t do unto others what you would not have done to you.”

I like George Carlin’s shortening of the original 10.
Something like: 1.- be honest. 2. – try not to hurt anyone.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 15:41:18 +0000

If these “rules” were valuable and made sense (I think they do) and the audience are thinking adults then they shouldn’t be Commandments.

The only time you need Commandments are when the rules are a grab bag of nonsense or when you’re dealing with moral juveniles who can’t reason through moral decisions on their own and only respond to orders. I guess this list was compiled as a joke or a demonstration that the 10 Commandments of the bible (or is it 20 or 30, how do you count?) are not such a great example of moral clarity, but it still treats us as children.