Indiana has once again buttressed its reputation as the dumbest state north of the Mason-Dixon line.
The new Indiana law allowing the posting of the Ten Commandments in government buildings as an “historic document” beggars reason.
Even if we did not have state-church separation as a cornerstone of our government, the content of the Ten Commandments should negate their endorsement and posting.
The first four commandments are all about a vain, jealous, insecure manufactured deity belonging to a superstitious, unenlightened time.
Almost any thoughtful person could write a better set of commandments. Think of the cruelty of ordering the punishment of children “even to the third and fourth generation” because their fathers could not profess belief in the unbelievable? What a monstrous commandment. Why not a commandment to honor children? The bible tells you to beat them, poor children. What about equality? Kind people do not equate a wife with an ox. Where is the commandment against rape? And why was there no commandment against slavery? Rather basic, wouldn’t you think?
Most Christians do not even know that there are three sets of “ten commandments” in the bible, and the only one referred to in Scripture as the Ten Commandments contains teachings about offerings and sacrifices and ends with “Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk.”
The Ten Commandments are not an historic document. They are a religious document, a religious folk tale. They belong to the Judeo-Christian religion, and they should not have the endorsement of government. To place them with truly historic documents is dishonest and unacceptable.
Anne Nicol Gaylor
President
Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc.
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