2861 Five Commandments.

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Whenever a page like this comes up I always get a spate of comments from people who seem to think that every time a character says something it’s written in stone, or they 100% believe what they are saying on pain of death. Maybe this time I will too, I guess I’ll see. Maybe there are people that write characters as though they never speak in hyperbole, and mean exactly what they say all the time. I don’t. I try to write each character according to their ability to get their point across how they mean it. With Reggie he may not always be using the right words to say what he means, but he thinks he is. Alex, on the other hand is more likely to use precise language so it’s easier to take her at her exact word. Then again you have someone like Thomas who has the capacity to get his points across precisely, but willfully, purposely, and sometimes maliciously, misrepresents what he actually believes if he even presents it at all. The inability to deal with nuance, context, and setting often lead to misunderstandings. Precise communication will always be difficult in a world where people have different capabilities and educations. Ultimately you just have to do your best and hope for a good outcome. As cultures become less homogenous miscommunication becomes more likely since all parties do not have the same basis of understanding. Fracturing of a shared identity leads to strife.

I know what Reggie means and believes because I create him. So I also know that what he’s saying right now is not the totality of what he believes and you outside observers don’t know that. You know it now because I wrote it here, unless you are someone who knows that a few sentences can’t convey the sum total of a person to you. Longtime readers have some concept of Reggie as a person, but there’s always some amount you can never fully know about anyone. We all exists in each other’s minds as a best guess of who we all are. It’s simply a baked in complication of reality.

Anyway, I hope your week starts off well. Maybe my work will contribute to that. If so I point casually to the various links on the page meant to draw resources from you. So casually. I am the very avatar of casualness. On Wednesday I hope to see you back again. Until then, stay smooth daddy-o.

43 Comments

preach it, brother

Oh, no. I understand the sentiment but sadly this is an erroneous conclusion. After all, the premise of the statement is that some people need the fear of God not to hurt people. Since the fear of God exists and they admittedly feel that fear then the premise of the statement is that THOSE particular people who need to feel the fear of God to not harm others are NOT harming others. It’s the ones who will feel the fear of God and hurt others anyway that are the reason we can’t have nice things. Roughly 2% of humanity who will never learn no matter what. The ones who laugh in ignorance when they do something that harms another in some way because they can do it and will get away with it. Even if they don’t get away with it they will not learn from justice. They will instead hate even more because everyone else ruined their fun. So, sadly, Reggie has come to an erroneous conclusion close to the truth. It’s the people who will do wrong no matter what that are why we can’t have nice things.

Yea, but which Ten Commandments? Because there are two of them: the first round and the second round. Remember kids, never boil a goat in its mother’s milk.

Also there are tons of rule outside the commandments.
-Like in Luke 18:18 where Jesus finds a guy who follows all 10 commandments but Jesus says it isn’t enough and he has to follow the (basically) 11th commandment of how the rich should donate their wealth.
-Also how a man should not sleep with another man as he would a woman. Lesbians are OK though.
-Don’t wear wool and linen. Failure to comply is death. Probably.
-Don’t get tattoos. Yes: all christian tattoos are bad.
-Don’t eat unclean animals. In fact, all food must be Kosher.
-Don’t use your sons for blood sacrifices. But daughters are fair game (Judges 11).
-Christmas is banned (Jeremiah 10)
-Killing people is bad. Except when Moses kills his “friends and family” in Exodus for having the wrong religion. Or when Moses summons “The Destroyer” who murders babies. Or the Dannites. Or (insert many more examples).

If I remember correctly the commandment is “Thou shall not commit Murder.” not “Thou shall not Kill.” Killing is fine so long as you have a good reason, I guess.

Oh no- “murder”, or an illegal killing, only applied to killing a member of the ingroup extrajudicially. In the modern day, it could be interpreted as a few different things.

1. Don’t kill other members of your nation
2. Don’t kill other believers
3. Don’t kill Israelites specifically

King James clearly states “thou shall not kill”. And contrary to what I was expecting Biblehub has so many other translations with “thou shall not murder”.

Which is worthless because murder is defined as ‘bad killing’. Thanks Bible, now I know that bad killing are bad. Basically just “bad things are bad”. What great circular and self defining edicts.

It would be nice if defined what murder was.

“Lesbians are ok though” I have a theory about that. The elite had multiple wives, right? So…

Lesbians are okay(ish) because they don’t get in the way of making more Israelites. A gay man might have a difficult time getting it up to reproduce but a lesbian woman is likely already in an arranged marriage. All she has to do is lie back and think of Judea. There is the matter of opportunity and it seems likely that there was probably some unwritten rule against it. It may be that whoever was writing that particular scripture couldn’t be bothered to consider the idea that a woman’s preferences were important enough to include in scripture.

The Bible says gay dude sex is illegal but it never once talks about lesbians. Therefore they are not banned. In fact, its almost a tacit approval because if Yahweh disapproved of lesbians he would have said so.

Jesus doesn’t create an 11th commandment for the rich to donate their wealth. What he does is confront the young man about valuing his wealth more than his pursuit of God. It’s the fact that the young man turns away when he might have to give up wealth that is the issue, not the wealth itself.

Hey, the Old Testament isn’t as bad for filler as DBZ – which is all screaming, half of which is “Goku, why aren’t you here?!” At least the Hebrews weren’t always yelling, “Messiah, why aren’t you here?!”

Really, the abridged parody version makes so much more sense and has vastly superior pacing, while keeping the character of the original intact.

Actually that does happen quite a bit. Mostly in Exodus and Numbers. And they are really really whiny about it too. Its really repetitive too.
-Can’t cross the Red Sea. Oh no, where is Yahweh. Did he free us from Egypt just to have us run down by chariots near the sea.
-Low on food. Oh no, where is Yahweh. Did he free us from Egypt just to have us die of hunger.
-Thirsty. Oh no, where is Yahweh. Did he free us from Egypt just to have us die of thirst.
-Lost in desert. SEE ABOVE
-Moses goes up a hill for a few days. Oh no, where is Yahweh. Guess we should get a golden calf as our new God.

If you need to believe in God watching over you to be a good person, then you’re not a good person, you’re a bad person on a leash.

This is something I’ve discussed worth my dad a lot. Ethics and morals are more important than all the silly rules in a religion and any religion truly worth it’s salt will say that people who have the right mindset are just as valid even if they don’t follow the religion. This is part of why I’m a big fan of sihkism though there are a few things I disagree with it on. Also a lot of old testament rule make more sense if you think of them as life adviser govern for the times. Don’t easy pork or shellfish, that makes sense as they tend to carry parasites so back when cooking was less reliable that were dangerous. Don’t were mixed fabrics,fabrics of diffrent thread counts can rub up against each other and cause damage to the clothes. Some other rules make a little less sense though.

Boil it down to it’s essence, and the Bible says “Be good to each other”. The rest is commentary.

My good sir, have you read the Bible? Because there only happens like maybe five in the Old Testament.
Dead serious, I am trying so hard to recall any instance of someone just being genuinely nice. Not fulfilling their duty as a leader / parent or something transactional just someone being good. We have heroes but they all turn evil. If there is ever a chance that someone can be appealed to they are instead murdered.

*Eli is a hero… then his kids turn evil and it destroys Israel.
*David turns Goliath from his evil ways. Via murder. David then plots to murder his best friend and steal his woman. Upon being discovered David redeems himself JK his wife is publicly ****ed and Yahweh starves his baby to death.

These are only instances of nice people I can think of right away. And I am not lying when I say I did not intend to make it so sadistic or counter to your comment.

-Moses asking Pharaoh to let his people leave for three days and Pharaoh immediately agreeing to it. Pharaoh is then mind controlled into rejecting the offer. Yahweh murders his son, and decimates Egypt.
-The Dannites arrive at a land full of nice people who welcome them. The Dannites kill all of them, burn everything, and steal the land. The Dannites are heroes FYI.
-Lot accepts two guests (angles) into his home. His neighbors want to **** the guests but Lot tries to dissuade them by allowing them to **** his daughters instead. Lot’s wife is murdered. His hometown and all his possessions are destroyed. Lot’s daughters drug and **** him.
-Because Jephthah gains superpowers and slaughters entire enemy armies he has to ritualistically blood sacrifice his daughter. Its implied he hoped one of his servants (slaves) would be sacrificed instead of her. The daughter asks that the sacrifice be delayed for a few weeks so that she could hang out with her friends. Jephthah allows it and shockingly, there are no negative consequences. Something nice happened and it didn’t backfire.

I think another example of someone being nice in the Old Testament is:
In Genesis 45, [verses, or lines? I don’t know much about reading the bible], but in Genesis 45…lines 3-7, I think: Joseph was being nice or kind, when: he forgives his brothers for [selling him into slavery…+ then faking his death to cover up their bad act]. Later, things go well for Joseph, his brothers, + the rest of his family.

(Having said that- I just wanted to discuss [a story of Joseph], that was written in the bible.

I don’t mean to tell anyone to: to join a religion, to be atheistic, to be agnostic, to be theistic, or to be any kind of religious person, or to be any kind of non-religious person.)

Cheers.

That actually is a pretty good example. I kept reading a bit after that to see what happens and….

Technically Yahweh ordered Joseph to forgive his brothers but it seems pretty obvious that he would have forgiven them anyways.
And then two chapters later in Genesis 47
There is a famine and everyone sells their livestock, land, and freedom to Joseph and the Pharaoh for food. They become servants / slaves. And we know that Yahweh can create food (mana) and water at will in Exodus / Numbers so I guess he wanted them to be sold into slavery.

I can see that, Jackie.
In my view- A character saying something, or doing something, does not mean that the author believes that [saying or doing this thing]- is a morally good and/or correct thing, to do.

Such as- George Lucas wrote the fiction of- [paraphrased]- Darth Vader says:
“You million people on this planet, you disagree with the government that I serve. OK, so for that- I’ll use my death star/weapon and [destroy] your planet, and [you] with it!”

George Lucas wrote a fiction story, like that- but I [very much believe], that George Lucas [didn’t] agree with Darth Vader’s, violent actions.

TLDR-

Dr. Seuss wrote the [fiction] story- The Cat in The Hat.
In The Cat in the Hat, the main character makes a mess in someone else’s house.

Dr. Seuss was not in favor of- people making messes in other people’s houses.

Drat.. OK, I jumped the gun with my comment, there.

Regardless- I still believe that an author’s fiction stories, and his…her…or their views, usually don’t mirror each other.

Ian Fleming’s, James Bond novels, were not a guidebook of- how Ian Fleming thought people should behave.

Reggie is pretty on the ball, and he’s not even talking about one type of Protestant disagreeing with another about whose version counts.

(Not picking on Protestants but we’re in western Kansas.)

I expect either his sister or his gf to next mention that every culture has a faith of some kind or another.

‘Without God, what’s to stop you from murdering and raping as much as you want?’

‘….nothing. I -do- rape and murder as much as I want. I want zero. The implication that you don’t is very concerning.’

Things that the 1970s, TV actor + film actor, Alan Alda, has said about himself:

“Alda described how as a teen he was raised as a Roman Catholic and eventually he realized he had begun thinking like an agnostic or atheist.”

“…he does not like to be labeled as an agnostic, stating in an interview for the 2008 question section of the Edge Foundation website, that it was too fancy a word for him.”

“He argues he simply is not a believer and questions why people are so frightened of others who hold beliefs different from their own.”

-anarchy (self rule) is for good people (people who see the person behind them/beside them/ahead of them, as been equally worthy and valuable as themselves)

-government is for bad people (people who are prideful/selfish/greedy). which is why all governments fail (because either immediately or shortly after formation, prideful greedy people achieve the seats of power in government)

Reggie’s grasp of the Bible indicates that he didn’t pay attention AT ALL during all those years in Sunday school. At least Virginia retained some of what she was taught.

Seems like I remember learning Jesus birth was considered to make the Old Testament rules, except for the original ten, no longer necessary. But people being people, well…here we are.

Yes and no. The old covenant, the law of Moses, was all about rules. Rules for how to behave, how to worship, how to atone, lists and lists and lists of rules. The thing is, the old covenant didn’t work. No one can find salvation by rules alone. No matter how many laws are heaped on, they won’t make anyone a better person in their own hearts.

Christ instead introduced a different way, a new covenant. The covenant of grace. The point of the new covenant is that instead of endless rules we can be saved by simply accepting Christ and asking forgiveness.

The ten commandments, and all the other historical laws as well, are still useful under the new covenant as a general guideline and an object of study. Even if we can now ask forgiveness, it’s still not a good thing to steal or murder. Likewise, we can study the reasons why the various lesser laws exist. Often, it’s for maintaining health or sanitation, for example.

It makes sense that Reggie would walk away from Sunday School thinking the Bible was just a set of rules to follow. Definitely seems to suit him, and a lot of Sunday Schools seem to focus on the rules more than anything else.

He missed out on the parts where Paul basically says the law exists to make us realize that we’re incapable of perfectly following all the rules, and that’s why Jesus is on the cross, to pay for us breaking the rules.

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