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Did the Commandments influence our laws? Yes. Are our laws based upon them as a whole? Absolutely not.

Exactly. And yes, we do have laws prohibiting adultery, murder, and theft, and there are Commandments that relate to the underpinnings of those laws. BUT, there are plenty of non-Christian societies that have those same laws. And because those laws exist in the absence of the Ten Commandments, it is incorrect to assume that we have those laws because of the Ten Commandments. We'd have had them anyway even if we weren't Judeo/Christians.

X said "Exactly. And yes, we do have laws prohibiting adultery, murder, and theft, and there are Commandments that relate to the underpinnings of those laws. BUT, there are plenty of non-Christian societies that have those same laws. And because those laws exist in the absence of the Ten Commandments, it is incorrect to assume that we have those laws because of the Ten Commandments. We'd have had them anyway even if we weren't Judeo/Christians."

One point you seem to have missed is that "non christian" societies do have SOME of the same laws. But many pagan societies do not.

And many Middle Eastern countries do not have the Christian part of the law. They repay with revenge, not justice. Stoning women for adultery, even if they were raped. Cutting off a hand for stealing. All of that still happens today in those countries.

The Grace, the Christian addition to law is very important, and can't be overlooked.

"Exactly. And yes, we do have laws prohibiting adultery, murder, and theft, and there are Commandments that relate to the underpinnings of those laws. BUT, there are plenty of non-Christian societies that have those same laws. And because those laws exist in the absence of the Ten Commandments, it is incorrect to assume that we have those laws because of the Ten Commandments. We'd have had them anyway even if we weren't Judeo/Christians."

Would we? Does anyone really care about adultery anymore (even in the highest official of the land)? As we fight against our own heritage, we gradually erode our standards as a nation.

Law and morality without God as the author are maleable. Law and morality based on God are immutable. I'll take the rule of law any day.

Did the Commandments influence our laws? Yes. Are our laws based upon them as a whole? Absolutely not.
Exactly. And yes, we do have laws prohibiting adultery, murder, and theft, and there are Commandments that relate to the underpinnings of those laws. BUT, there are plenty of non-Christian societies that have those same laws. And because those laws exist in the absence of the Ten Commandments, it is incorrect to assume that we have those laws because of the Ten Commandments. We'd have had them anyway even if we weren't Judeo/Christians.

Very true. Throw in the fact that the right to have Gods other than the Judeo-Christian one, to take the JC God's name in vain, and to make "graven images" are protected and the supposed "foundation" of the Constitution on the Commandments gets much weaker.

-Eric