Less Government. More Religion.

Religion is actually a form of government, something that we've obviously collectively forgotten since we treat it as an accessory someone can choose.

Muslims know this - many Muslims demand that their religion be incorporated into their state governments.  The problem with the Muslim religion is, in my opinion, that it's very poor in terms of government, and makes no allowances for things that we have learned since it was invented. So I wouldn't want to live in a Muslim state, but that's just me.

But I'm not advocating for people to convert to Islam. I'm advocating for people to actually follow the important rules and principles of their religion more closely (um, the good parts, not really the parts about honor killings and stoning and easy divorces and such).

Let's call it the Ten Commandments. If you're not Jewish, Christian, or Muslim, it's ok to consider this as an outsider:

1. there is a God

2. worship only one God (makes it easy to agree with other people)

3. don't worship idols (God does not have a specific form so don't pray to or worship people, paintings, or sculptures because they can't help you). By the way this doesn't mean you can't HAVE a painting or sculpture. Just don't worship them.

4. don't make a wrongful use of the name of God - and many people take this to mean don't curse other people, for example telling someone you hope "God damn you" for what they have done.  I don't see it that way. I think that expressing your anger at another person in those terms is perfectly fine - if what they've done would warrant such a thing.  I think what's more important is to not use God's name in a wrongful way like, "I saw God and he told me that you should all give up your urban lives and come live here with me and be my wives and my servants and let me have crazy monkey sex with your children while pretending it's some sort of purification ritual"

5. work for six days and rest on the seventh - including your animals and slaves. It makes sense.

6. honor your father and mother. They are looking out for your best interest so try to do good by them. If you're one of the unlucky people who have abusive parents or they try to steal your stuff or otherwise exploit you, then hopefully abandoning them is as close to honoring them as you can get. If you make a better life you might still want to consider that you wouldn't exist without them, and that would be a way of honoring them, even if you never see or speak to them again.

7. don't murder. Very good commandment. A classic.

8. don't commit adultery. I think of adultery not so much as having sex with other people while you're married, but breaking a vow that you made to the one most important person in your life. And in the times of the Old Testament adultery had real economic implications which made it actually hurt the other person more than just emotionally. So it really means, don't hurt someone who you made a commitment to protect. But if someone disagrees with me and says it just means don't cheat on your spouse, well I won't argue with that, because it still does mean don't cheat on your spouse. I'm just saying it's not as much about the cheating as about the effects of the cheating. You shouldn't cause harm to your spouse whether it's from cheating or something else.

9. don't falsely testify against your neighbor. I read neighbor as fellow human, not strictly the person who lives adjacent to you... although in the times of the Old Testament I think your neighbor would be the person most likely to witness you actually doing something wrong or right.  So don't lie about people, whether it's to hurt them or help yourself or for amusement or whatever.  If you don't know, say you don't know. If you aren't sure, say you aren't sure.

10. don't covet your neighbor's things. It's not healthy. Don't worry about them, worry about yourself. You want what they have? Do what they do and get your own. Don't try to take theirs from them, and don't be a creepy neighbor.


1-4 are important to me personally but here's my objective perspective on them:  religion is a form of government, and government needs authority to function. Commandments 1-4 assert the authority of God. How so?

1. there is a God.  God cannot have authority unless He exists, so this is a very important assertion.

2. there is only one God. There is just one authority, not many. Humans need this.

3. don't worship idols. Many times there is value in separating things. We give awards to outstanding achievers in order to separate them from the rest of us. Why? To make them special - so that people will want to be like them and in that way we inspire more achievements. That's creating value. So with this commandment God creates value by separating Himself from common people and paintings and sculptures and rocks and rivers. Not allowing just anything to be a god makes God special.

4. don't make a wrongful use of the name of God.  God has values. God takes sides. God has intent. God has a plan. And if you don't know what it is, don't pretend that you do. This means God retains full authority for the use of His name. Which is, of course, something that we copy when we set up our own authorities for things, such as who gets to print dollar bills.

So basically God spent 40% of his commandments making sure you that follow the other 60%.  And that makes the other 60% very important!  Let's look at them again:

5. work for six days and rest on the seventh.   Helps people retain perspective. When people are overworked they may go crazy.

6. honor your father and mother.  Family is important, social structure is important, and there are numerous ways to honor your parents that are common to many cultures and also numerous ways that are unique to a culture and to the set of parents because it may depend on their hopes and aspirations for you, or on what they believe will make you a success, or what will make them proud. And when they get too old to care for themselves, you can honor them by helping out.

7. don't murder.  Anyone disagree?

8. don't commit adultery. This rule was not meant to be broken.

9. don't falsely testify against your neighbor.  Breaking this rule is basically evil, don't do it.

10. don't cover your neighbor's things. A cornerstone of social order. Also means don't steal.

Governments tend to have these laws and many many more.  More laws is fine; things come up and people disagree and rules need to be made to regulate behavior in a way that is most beneficial to society.  But maybe if we agree that the basic rules laid out for us regulate first our work ethic, then our values, then how we shouldn't hurt each other - maybe we might realize that a lot of the rules we've created aren't really necessary. And if you follow the prison population counts and the facts about how many  people should be in prison but aren't because there's not enough room... maybe if just a few important rules were more respected by everyone we wouldn't have prison overpopulation problems. What I'm saying is, the person who robs the bank with a friend ... has a friend who also thinks it's ok to rob a bank, and probably a few others who may not do it themselves but won't turn him in either. Whereas I hope that one day a friend with more religion in him will say, "no that's wrong don't do it" and maybe prevent a crime, or report the crime because it's the right thing to do.

I'm saying religion can be an effective form of government if we let it be instead of marginalizing it.