Building a Better Morality: Ten Commandments Revised

Okay, on the subject of objective morality, I decided to take a long, hard look at the most objectivest (sp?), moralest code of objective morality that Judeo-Christian religions have to offer: the Ten Commandments. I believe that George Carlin cut these down to size in one of his routines, but my goal isn't to make the commandments more succinct...it is to dispose of the irrelevant commandments in order to add moral codes that are, tellingly, excluded from the original, as well as altering or expanding the roles of other commandments. Well, let's begin by looking at the actual Ten Commandments.

1. You shall have no other God before me.
2. Do not make any image of what is in the heavens above
3. Do not use the Lord's name in vain
4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
5. Honor thy father and thy mother
6. Do not murder
7. Do not commit adultery
8. Do not steal (actually believed to be a reference to kidnapping)
9. Do not bear false witness against your neighbor
10. Do not covet.

Okay, right off the bat, it is pretty clear that the first four commandments can hardly constitute objective morals. There is no morality involved in that, they are simply demanding that you be Christian in order to adhere to them. In fact, there seems to be little moral reason to not make artistic depictions of gods, little immoral with saying "God" as an interjection in casual conversation. There is no harm brought about to any at all for working on the Sabbath. And, given that these objective morals are only relevant if you are presupposing the existence of the Judeo-Christian God, it is hardly universally applicable. So...let me just empty those four slots for now, and we will move on.

5. Honor thy father and thy mother
6. Do not commit murder
7. Do not commit adultery
8. Do not steal/kidnap
9. Do not bear false witness.
10. Do not covet.

Alright, for commandment five, I think that we need to keep in mind that 1. parents aren't the only ones in society who should be respected by an individual and 2. some parents should not be honored (namely, abusive ones). As such, I think that Commandment five should be revised to "Honor competent and respectful authority figures".

6. Do not commit murder.
7. Do not commit adultery.
8. Do not steal/kidnap.
9. Do not bear false witness.
10. Do not covet.

For commandment six, I think we need to revise it from "murder" to simply "bringing death and physical harm to others intentionally", in order to remove loopholes of warfare, justified homicide, and torture. As for commandment seven, I think that the "adultery" prohibition was originally meant to both promote sexual restraint and to prevent unfairness within a marriage (though heavily favoring the male, in that it was only considered adultery originally if the woman involved was married). I think that sexual restraint could be incorporated into commandment 10, and I could change commandment 7 to focus on marital equity. So, commandment seven could say something like "do not violate the trust of those closest to you", to make it a little more universal. And, change commandment ten to read "restrain yourself from potentially damaging desires and moderate your indulgences". Which leaves us with:

8. Do not steal/kidnap.
9. Do not bear false witness.

Alrighty. Well, I will address slavery later on, so I will assume that Commandment is actually what it is commonly interpretted to be. I will leave it relatively intact, but rephrase it to be "do not steal, damage, or destroy property that is not your own". As for Commandment nine, well...even though it is commonly equated to lying, it is really lying within a context that brings about harm and punishment for the person you are lying about. So, I will simply revise this as "do not speak falsehoods to disadvantage or harm others". So, what we have thus far is:

5.Honor competent and benevolent authority figures.
6.Do not intentionally bring about suffering or death for others.
7.Do not violate the trust of those closest to you.
8.Do not steal, damage, or destroy property that is not your own.
9.Do not speak falsehoods to disadvantage or harm others.
10.Restrain yourself from desires that would bring about damage, and do not overindulge yourself.

And, now I have the ugly task of whipping up Commandments that were never mentioned in the original. First off, I guess slavery would be a nice starting point. So, I think that "do not treat other human beings as inferior to oneself" suits that purpose.
Then there is the issue of child molestation, rape, and other forms of sexual abuse. In a sense, revised commandments 1, 6, and 10 would work against this, but I think that it needs to be explicitly condemned. I think "do not exploit others in order to indulge in one's own desires" works for this, and further helps to condemn slavery.
Then, we can get the last two. I think one issue is relative altruism: that is, helping other people when it is desperately needed, if doing so costs you little to nothing. The other issue is to not prompt or directly support people specifically in doing an immoral activity (and, given the strict nature of what is considered immoral here, this would largely be mafia dons, people giving money to terrorists, slave traders,people encouraging Klan members, etc.) . So, we have the following final revised Commandments:

1.Do not treat other human beings as inferior to oneself.
2.Do not exploit others in order to indulge in one's own desires.
3.Give help to others that desperately need it if doing so costs you little.
4.Do not actively promote immoral activities of others.
5.Honor competent and benevolent authority figures.
6.Do not intentionally bring about suffering or death for others.
7.Do not violate the trust of those closest to you.
8.Do not steal, damage, or destroy property that is not your own.
9.Do not speak falsehoods to disadvantage or harm others.
10.Restrain yourself from desires that would bring about damage, and do not overindulge yourself.

At face value, I think it looks pretty good. Not too shabby. Not sure if it is better than the original in being slighly more broad and comprehensive, and not as obsessed with how we interact with the Invisible Man, but, well...it was worth a try...