Personally I would argue no. Whereas they are good guidelines to follow, I certainly wouldn't base my life around them. Remember that these commandments were given to Moses for a people that lived in the ancient world - a world that no longer exists. If we based our laws and justice systems on the ancient world we would still have slavery, murder (but on an acceptable scale e.g. people having the right to kill someone who wronged them), leaders who could order executions on a whim etc.
Some examples of the good ones:
"Do not murder" - Okay, simple enough but is this needed? No. We don't live by this because it is God's law, otherwise this would be optional to everyone who does not belong to the Christian faith. It is our society's law and therefore must be obeyed by everyone, or face the consequences of our country's justice system - but that's a totally different matter.
"Do not steal" -Again, stealing is a crime against our laws and will be punished. It is a law because it is wrong, not because God ordered it thousands of years ago.
However the ones that aren't necessarily crimes such as "Do not lie" and "Honour your father and mother" are good pieces of advice, but not law. Lying isn't always a bad thing. You could tell a lie to comfort someone, to protect someone etc and the lie itself may not have any consequences because of it, so where's the harm? Given the situation, the lie may have improved matters whereas honesty could have worsened them. It's circumstantial, but yes, lying is normally frowned upon as it's, more often than not, used for self preservation.
But now, the less attractive ones, that admittedly can only apply to Christians.
"Do not worship any other gods" - Okay, why not? Here we have a god that is claiming to be the one and only true god (which as a Christian I do believe). Now, to an outsider, that doesn't look very open minded. To say that your god is the only one and true god is nothing short of arrogant. It does not show much tolerance to other religions or faiths, and as a modern society we should encourage freedom of religion. It comes with the whole freedom package. With this "law", how can we truly be free if we can not choose our god? Is this a form of slavery?
"Keep the Sabbath holy" - Normally this is taken as going to church on the Sabbath, worshipping god, and of course, no working. I work on Sundays. Lots of people work on Sundays. The whole world simply can not come to a standstill once a week, every week, for God. It's just not possible in modern society. Police need to monitor the public, doctors need to save lives, firemen need to put out fires, houses need to be built, systems need to be maintained, the list is endless. These points could not have been considered when the Commandments were written. Again, they were for a completely different world.
I could say more but my fingers hurt. I may continue later if prompted but I hope that's enough fodder for you.
Last edited by Caesar : 25-06-2008 at 08:30 PM.
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thanks private! 
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