Replies

1. Trust good character more than promises.--Good advice, but subjective. Nothing to base a legal system on.

2. Do not speak falsely = Thou shalt not bear false witness.

3. Do good things.--Subjective. Nothing to base a legal system on. Better to note what is bad, so that the denser oones know what the boundaries are.

4. Do not be hasty in making friends, but do not abandon them once made.--Good advice, but subjective. Nothing to base a legal system on.

5. Learn to obey before you command.--Subjective. Nothing to base a legal system on.

6. When giving advice, do not recommend what is most pleasing, but what is most useful.--Subjective. Nothing to base a legal system on.

7. Make reason your supreme commander.--Subjective. Nothing to base a legal system on.

8. Do not associate with people who do bad things.--Subjective. Nothing to base a legal system on.

9. Honor the gods. = Thou shalt have no other gods before me and Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain...

10. Have regard for your parents = Honour thy father and thy mother...

The other Commandments given to Moses, including not killing, not stealing, not lying and not coveting are actual foundations for law.

Yeah, rule #3 is written as badly as the 14th amendment. plenty chance for judicial abuse. :-)

Overall, it was an excellent article.

The author betrayed his secular tendencies and perhaps ignorance of Greek mythology with his 'honor the gods' comments. Greece was polytheistic - so of course, their own narrow cultural version of Moses #1 would be plural 'honor the gods'. yet the author bone-headedly takes it to be an opening for honoring different religions, some kind of writ of tolerance. Um, no, he confuses Joseph Campbell with the ancient Greeks. Do any serious non-primitive polytheists even exist today? Christianity and Buddhism killed that in the west and east repsectively... (And dont count Wiccans, they are a pseudo- new age 'religion' that constructed in recent decades with no real relation to primitive animists).

So I conclude, with the author, that Solon gives good advice overall, but his guidance on religion and the basis of any community laws both come up short.

Then much of it can be simplified to one rule as Jesus taught:

Love your neighbor as yourself.

5. Learn to obey before you command.--Subjective. Nothing to base a legal system on.

Judges would do well to observe this one. They go hog wild making up rules for the rest of us to follow but show little willingness to follow their rules, i.e., our Constitution, the law of the land.

Thanks for posting those subjective laws. Solon forgot:

11. Always walk back to front

12. Do not stare into the sun

13. Be Excellent to one another!

The Bible is clear that God wrote His law into our hearts....so that we shall have no excuse. Everyone has an innate sense of right vs. wrong programed into their souls. But some have a "seared conscience"--and can not cope with the truth any longer. (If anyone needs evidence of this--have a conversation with a woman who has had multiple abortions explain her "choice.")

The 10 Commandments were a wonderful elaboration and clear set of guidelines written by God in His own handwriting (until Moses lost his temper with the original tablets). They are not "also rans" as this "BCE" atheist states.

"Do good things." If we take that phrase alone, the Godlessness of it is enough to make you sick. How, without the standard that God sets, do you know what "good" is? A pedophile "feels good" when they molest children. A thief "feels good" when they get away with their crime. God sets an uncompromising standard for "good" and "truth" and that is how we know what is required of us as set forth in the Ten Commandments.