By Carl S ~
One man made a very astute observation. He said before the ten commandments came to be, there were tribes. Mankind, therefore, already had social laws in place. People co-operated, loved, cared for, and supported one another. So who needed commands from one more invented invisible deity? All of this natural morality existed before the ten commandments. But what happened after them?
What about that Golden Calf story? It's in Exodus 32, if you're wondering. Long story short, after the Israelites are delivered out of Egypt, they make a stopover near Mt. Sinai, and Moses, the leader, goes up the mountain alone to speak with the “god” no one has seen. He's up there so long, it looks like he's skipped out on them. They're bored, and ask the second-in-command man to fabricate this god upstairs into an image representing that “god.” After he does (here again, according to Moses alone), the “invisible god” on the mountaintop tells Moses he's pissed off and is going to destroy the lot of them. Moses says he talked him out of doing this, arguing it would be bad for “god's p.r.” if the Egyptians passed it around, “their god only delivered them so he could wipe them out in the desert.” Nice move.
Moses just happened to be just another self-ordained god-spokesman, a.k.a. nut jobNow Moses just happened to be just another self-ordained god-spokesman, a.k.a. nut job, another one of those who go off as hermits with brains cooked and hallucinating in the searing desert heat, hearing their “god” speaking to them. (And he had over a month to spend chiseling letters in rocks.)
To continue, Moses, in a huff, and after 40 days away from his people, goes down the mountain and sees the people singing and dancing! Enjoying themselves! He breaks those ten commandments tablets he claims were written by “god,” (one of them being, “You shall not kill”), and makes the people eat the dust made from the idol he pulverized. As if that weren't punishment enough for idolatry, he tells the men from the tribe of Levi, “Thus says the Lord: grab your swords, go to and fro through the encampment, and “each one of you kill his brother, his companion, and neighbor.” Now just picture this taking place! Tallying up the slaughter, it's claimed “only” 3000 were killed. Compare that to the number of victims on 9/11/2001. Thank you, Lord.
Now, I myself don't believe a word of this story. To begin with, the ancient Egyptians, who kept meticulous inventory of day to day events at that time, never mentioned Moses or the Israelites being in Egypt. I couldn't care less, but millions of people believe this wacko story. I'm writing about it to point out something. Read the section following Moses's descent from the mountain to any believer, and that believer will have no problem accepting what followed. But think about this: before the commandments, the tribes came together and co-operated to make their journey. Families, husbands, wives, children, slaves, etc. After the ten commandments, after they “got religion,” then the slaughter of one another began. And no believer has a problem accepting this outcome.
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