As was noted in Sermon #2, we believe “it is oxymoronic to have ‘commandments’ as part of a religious belief system.” This is true for a number of reasons.
First of all, we recognize that views of and approaches to life vary considerably. Where there are reasons for people to act in one way or another, those reasons can – and should – be considered and explained, rather than mandated as part of some dogmatic system that stifles, rather than encourages, debate. As will be discussed in the sermons that follow, there are reasons that people should not kill, bear false witness, etc., and we believe that having a society in which people follow those tenets is far more likely to result when people stop and consider those reasons – i.e., when they question, honestly, the given notions, and do what’s right – rather than when they are ordered by some authoritarian entity.
Second, commandments lead to absolutes, which inevitably cannot be. Sometimes there may arise reasons to kill (or, perhaps, even “murder”), due to factors that may not have been previously considered. Life continually brings forth a host of novel and previously unimagined situations, which call for reevaluation of what may have been thought to be settled doctrine. Such reevaluations ought not to be constrained by some pronouncement that has simply gained acceptance and taken on a life of its own. On the contrary, reevaluation requires starting from scratch, and again looking to the reasons underlying any doctrine. Edicts from authority figures … or, worse, from those pretending to be the lieutenants of those authority figures … tend to arbitrary rules that arise by very limited and biased reflection.
Commandments also lead to confusion. Whenever understanding is replaced by dogma, people lose sight of their ultimate aims and why those aims are important. They also lose the ability to do what’s right, since they rely on the memorization (and possible misapplication) of the dogma, rather than relying on the principles and reasons that form its basis. It’s like trigonometry, where students memorize the sine, cosine and tangent of a 30º angle. Without understanding the underlying precepts, few are able to recall those values a year or two later. Yet, for the students who opted not to “learn” the values by memorization, but rather by understanding the derivation of those values, a lifelong ability to come up with those figures is the rule.
Arbitrariness is also a danger of commandments. As a result, they may ultimately turn out to be completely wrong. Commandments are the product of an authoritarian construct, which is put in place (and/or interpreted) by a very limited number of individuals with limited life experiences. As “Commandments,” they discourage challenge and stifle the views of those without power. Thus, by design, they are likely to be a deeply flawed means of finding truth.
Lastly, commandments restrict liberty. As is about to be demonstrated in the following sermons on the Ten Commandments, at times they impose control and tyranny that do nothing but infringe upon the freedom that we in FACTS believe is a key component of human existence.