Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

God forbid that our laws should be based on something so 'immaterial' as the ten commandments. Whatever happened to the separation of church and state anyway?

Kevyn

His belief is that biblical law supersedes our constitution and laws. It is a belief no different than those held by Islamic extremists.

Larry the Legend Loc: Not hiding in Milton

Supersedes and precedes. Absolutely. Simply obeying those few laws will see the human race to a happy, prosperous place. It is a higher legal system than anything man-made, without a doubt.

no propaganda please Loc: moon orbiting the third rock from the sun

You are correct but then the Ten Commandments do not conflict with the Constitituion

Peewee Loc: San Antonio, TX

Kev, does being crazy keep you from going insane?

Hemiman Loc: Communist California

You of course know first hand he was" diddilling"little girls you rumor spreading little hate monger.Just because you do it doesn't mean others do.Given the current state of the country it's only a matter of time before you disappear to face your own charges about relationships with children.

Big Bass

Joe Biden has a penchant for little girls.

Hemiman Loc: Communist California

He does,uncle Joe is coming over everyone hide.

debeda

That's the best summation I've heard in a while

debeda

Highlander66 Loc: Illinois

Well said.

maureenthannon

rumi,"Separation of church and state" is not in the Constitution. It's from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Church in Danbury,Conn.It was not intended to keep churches and people of faith out of the political process. In the letter, Jefferson promised the church that the government would stay out of the churches business, not vice versa, as so many people today like to try to use it. The USA was founded as a Christian nation, but it didn't exclude other religions. Our Founding Fathers would be absolutely horrified if they saw what was to become of the nation that they founded. One of the main reasons this nation was formed was to give people the freedom to practice their faith. The First Amendment to the Constitution states that Congress shall make no law establishing a religion for America,OR DENY THE FREE EXERCISE OF RELIGION. Most people understand and agree with the Establishment clause, but so few understand, or are even aware of the free exercise clause. This ignorance is because the liberally owned and controlled teachers unions deliberately change the history and meaning of our nation to try to instill in our young people an ideal that Socialism is good and free enterprise is bad.

Singularity

http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2010/06/08/are_the_ten_commandments_really_the_basis_for_our_laws.html

Are the Ten Commandments really the basis for our laws?

By Phil Plait
As we ramp up to the mid-term elections in November 2010—sure to be just a warmup to the insanity that will be the presidential election in 2012—you can bet your bottom shekel that we'll be hearing from a lot of "family values" politicians decrying our lack of morality. That's de rigeur for any election, but every cycle it seems to get worse.

A lot of these claim that the United States is either a Christian nation—a ridiculous and easily-disprovable notion—or that it was founded on Judeo-Christian principles (the "Judeo" part is a giveaway that these politicians are Leviticans: they seem to keep their noses buried more in the fiery wrath of the Old Testament than in the actually gentle, politically-correct teachings of Jesus... more on this later, promise). Specifically, they claim quite often that our laws are based on the Ten Commandments.

I was thinking about this recently. People seem to accept that our laws are based on the morals of the Old Testament laid out in the Commandments, but as a proper skeptic, I decided to take a look myself. Why not go over the Commandments, said I to myself, and compare them to our actual laws, as well as the Constitution, the legal document framed by the Founding Fathers, and upon which our laws are actually based?

So I did*.

For those of you not familiar with the Bible -- which includes many politicians most willing to thump it, it seems -- what follows is the relevant passage from Exodus 20 in the King James Version†. I found it online at the University of Michigan's Digital Library, which matches other online versions I found. Note: apparently, God said some other stuff interspersed among the Commandments, a sort of legal commentary to stress the aspects He felt important. I have highlighted the actual Commandments below.

Let's take a look:

[1] And God spake all these words, saying, [2] I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. [3] Thou shalt have no other gods before me. [4] Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: [5] Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; [6] And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. [7] Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. [8] Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. [9] Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: [10] But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: [11] For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. [12] Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. [13] Thou shalt not kill. [14] Thou shalt not commit adultery. [15] Thou shalt not steal. [16] Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. [17] Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
So let's take these one at a time, and see how many points of U.S. law that overlap the Ten Commandments shalt rack up.





1) I am the LORD thy God... Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

OK, that's clear enough. Obviously, God is saying He's the only one, and all other religions that have other gods, or other versions of The One God, are wrong.

So let's take a look at the Constitution, specifically the First Amendment:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
Right away, we have a problem. That's the very first thing laid out in the Bill of Rights, and I mean the very first sentence. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

What this says to me, and is pretty clear about it, is that we cannot make laws saying this god or that god is The God. Not only that, if you want to worship a god, any god, you have the legal right to do so.

Clearly, this very First Right of all Americans is in direct contradiction to the very first Commandment sent down by God. So people saying our laws are based on the Ten Commandments must never have even gotten to the first one of the ten. I guess they got to Exodus 19 and stopped."

rangetime

The separation of church and state is NOT in the Constitution. The purpose of separation is to prohibit ANY church from having a head of the church be the head of the government. For example: the King of England being the head of the Church. This would prevent Sharia Law from controlling the government. The first amendment protects the Right of the people to speak freely, to attend the church of their choice, to write articles on subjects pertaining to government activities, etc. If the government gives a church money, the church is beholding to the government, this is being done but it is an infringement on the separation of church and state.

Singularity

SCOTUS disagrees with you. It is the final arbiter in cases involving the Constitutionality of laws.