You can be an atheist and still follow the ten commandments as guidelines

[Cecelia]

Not really.

#1: Thou shalt have no other gods before me
How about no gods period? I mean you come up with ten rules, and this one is 10% of them? Really? "Hey don't worship other gods! I'm mighty jealous. So jealous that I made this the #1 rule in the Top 10 Rules. It's pretty much bullshit.

#2: Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
Really? This makes #2? It's absolutely worthless as far as morality goes.

#3: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
God dammit. This is yet ANOTHER commandment wasted on ego.

#4: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy
Another shitty one. Wow. 40% of the commandments, and they're already all shit. Great start....

#5: Honour thy father and thy mother
This one seems fine on the surface--but what if you have parents that are abusive? Half a point for this one.

#6: Thou Shalt Not Kill
Okay, this is a good one. It's really obvious though, and somehow... didn't come in until sixth. Five commandments (all of them useless I might add!) before they get to 'thou shalt not kill'

#7: Thou shalt not commit adultery
Nope no points here. Adultery is too loosely defined to give it credit for 'not cheating on your spouse' and makes no way for open marriages. Not to mention most believe it refers to all sexual 'deviancy' which is a pretty poor definition itself.

#8: Thou shalt not steal
This one only gets half a point too, because while you shouldn't steal... what if your family is starving? Should you just let them starve? Or do you steal some bread?

#9: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
This gets another point, I suppose. Though it's interestingly not THOU SHALT NOT LIE. It's not bearing false witness.

#10: Thou shalt not cove blah de blah blah blah
No points for this. It's a thought crime. My neighbor has a nice car, and maybe I'd like to have one. Oh no! I coveted. How terrible. It also treats women like property. Not surprised to see this one popular with the misogynists.

So out of 10 possible points... the Ten Commandments gets a whopping... 3 points. That's 30% worth. So they're not even really good guidelines. And one of the good ones is incredibly obvious.