I was listening to This American Life.

"The ten commandments"
http://thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1187

It got me thinking about even though I am an atheist I think a lot about this stuff.

And even though I don't believe, sometimes I pray.

So I thought about using this last minutes before 4Th of July Holiday to write about my take on The Commandments. My thoughts as I am right now: 25, uneducated, barely employed, cynic and skeptical, and though an unlikely candidate for happiness - quite happy.

ONE: 'You shall have no other gods before Me.
Though it was awesome on the radio show the comment about how important this might be for God. It is one thing to the THE God, quite another I suppose to be one of two.
Mari thought - We all want to be special?
you know when you get in a contest with people: who goes to the gym more, who makes more money, who has the weirdest disease...so maybe we all want to be unique. We all want to the The one, not just another one.

TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'
I always thought of this one as a good argument to raise against Catholicism. 6 words:
"What is up with the saint worshipping?"
It works quite well. But one time in Brazil I got the explanation that it was because God was busy and he needed assistants.
Touché.

THREE: 'You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.'
True enough. But Sasha - who is learning English - thought "Jesus" was a bad word because he was told not to use.

FOUR: 'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'
Some people in Brazil won't even cook. I think: does God really want me to sit and waste? Or maybe he just wants us to sit and enjoy the life we carved in the world he created. But I, for one, am too cynical to accept such possibility as a viable means of spending a perfectly good Sunday, so I will be shopping.

FIVE: 'Honor your father and your mother.'
Amen.

SIX: 'You shall not murder.'
Why do they have so many Christians in the army?

SEVEN: 'You shall not commit adultery.'
Oh this includes "Heart adultery"which means to THINK of somebody in a sexual manner. This one is tough. I would say impossible. Honestly I don't know anybody who has accomplished this.

EIGHT: 'You shall not steal.'
Need clarification. Steal stuff? or ideas?
Is taking from a big corporation considered stealing?

NINE: 'You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.'
Whee.

TEN: 'You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.'
This one is one of the impossible ones too.
We all want stuff.
We are jealous of people.
Sometimes isn't that what makes us grow as people.
Actually you can tie motivation to WANT.

Like this:
People that are motivated by materialism, want money because they want stuff.
If one is motivated by ego, they want to be recognized.
And if you are motivated truly by altruism you don't break any commandments but soon it will be your turn to have a statue carved to your likeness - then you break the second commandment and... BOOM!! - you are screwed like all of us.