“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” 

All right. Let’s begin with the cattle. We have official anthropomorphizing of bovine animals? God, you might note that – except for man – the creatures you allegedly created don’t separate out their days. When they are out doing whatever it is that they do, they haven’t the slightest conception of the day of the week, and they don’t take off time in what is a completely arbitrary temporal division. Especially cows!

Next, we’re back to the ego thing. Because you decided to take a break during the one week you supposedly created all of this stuff, mankind is ordered to do the same for eternity? What’s with the arbitrary rules? Even if we accept that you should be ordering us to worship you and contemplate your magnificence, why can’t we do that when we find it to be best time? If it turns out that Tuesday is more convenient one week, rather than Sunday, why is it necessary for us to stop what we’re doing on that specific day? Sometimes we get in a groove, and things are just right to be especially productive. You make us stop right then to commemorate a day that you chose to take a break on who-knows-how-many eons ago?

Incidentally, that order doesn’t seem to be having much of an effect. People all over this world work on the “sabbath day” as well as any other time they find it most appropriate. They mow their lawns, they balance their bank accounts, and they do all sorts of other tasks. In fact, in the United States, we give them an incentive to violate this Commandment … by law, we pay them time and a half (or double-time) to work on Sundays.

We also have things like Bingo parlors and SuperBowl Sundays. Do you think those are “holy?” 

This, of course, leads us to point out that it’s now four out of four of the Ten Commandments that are explicitly overruled by the laws of the United States. To those who contend that the Decalogue is a “foundational document,” it seems that the evidence of this is certainly lacking. 

We at FACTS believe that rest and contemplation has its place, and that it even can be encouraged. Sometimes taking a break from something allows one to gain a new perspective, and gathering with others – as many do on “the sabbath” - can be a rewarding and fulfilling experience on its own. We, in fact, encourage our followers to do just that on each new moon, as a reminder that life cycles, and that problems and solutions can benefit from new or reviewed approaches. But never would we mandate adherence to that schedule … ever, much less every week. Each individual has the absolute right to choose for ermself when and how ree will best utilize rees days and weeks.