In response to "But they offer no real, positive goals to pursue in this life, and hence no real guidance." The author, Ben Bayer, does not reflect an appropriate level of understanding of the Christian faith. The positive commandments are summarized by the Lord's words, "And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets'" (Matt 22:37-40). Love is the positive command, and not arbitrarily, but in order to live out our human nature, our telos, to be like God. There is no telos if there is no Creator (we would be equal to a rock, just matter in motion). If we do not love the least of us, why should our Father in heaven love us? If we do not forgive the least of us, why should our Father forgive us? (See "The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant," Matt 18:21-35). In participating in the nature of God, we spread love throughout the world. God bless you and I pray you will not turn from Him. At the end of the day, loving God is a matter of your free choice, an acceptance of His invitation. Freewill is something only a Creator can give...accidental byproducts of random natural processes are slaves to determinism and cannot freely choose to love (rocks, fish, stars, chemicals, Darwinian primates cannot love) only created, rational beings can choose to love.
I think you'll see that I do discuss the ostensibly positive commandments in the paragraph that runs "The only Commandments with any ostensible positive content are those about honoring one’s parents and God. But these offer only the façade of a real concern for values." The rest of what you say is more or less addressed by the rest of the article.
On the contrary, a Creator God is antithetical to the idea of free will. An entity that makes you, knows everything about you, including your whole future, who could stop you from reaching your destiny if you wanted, is not an entity capable of bestowing free will. And no major religious thinker has ever been able to defend the compatibility of real free will involving an ability to do otherwise.
I came down to the comments to write something similar to Andrew, but I see he beat me to it. I agree with the author Ben Bayer that the Ten Commandments don't really teach virtue. Most of the Old Testament laws were essentially legal restrictions for the specific nation of ancient Israel. No one would pull up a list of a country's laws today and expect them teach how to be a truly good and mature person. In that regard, I think "the golden rule" as Andrew pointed out is a much better starting place for morality. To go deeper in Christian ethics, you'd need a helpful theologian as a guide to explore what being a "good and mature person" means according to entire Bible and all of Christian history.
I think teaching the Ten Commandments is fine from a "legal history" perspective, since so much of the West's legal system was inspired by the Bible, so I could see it having a valid place in standard curriculum (but mandatorily posting it on the wall is really silly). But as a Christian, I'm really not a big fan of people cherry picking something like the Ten Commandments, and thinking it's going to make better, more "Christian" people.
The real weight of Christianity always was and always will be the God-man Jesus Christ -- who taught us we can be forgiven, redeemed, and enjoy union with the true Father of the universe. It's mystic; it's transformational. By Christian doctrine, Jesus fulfilled the Ten Commandments anyway (and the rest of them), and He offers a new kind of existence that brings maturity and goodness instead of blindly following rules out of fear of punishment (i.e. "perfect love casts out fear..."). Of course, loving God -- union with God -- will never be seen as a virtue by anyone who doesn't believe God exists. So for that reason, I can't really blame atheists for not valuing Christian virtues.
Good read, Ben! Lot of great ideas here about the kind of morality needed to form mature people.
In response to "But they offer no real, positive goals to pursue in this life, and hence no real guidance." The author, Ben Bayer, does not reflect an appropriate level of understanding of the Christian faith. The positive commandments are summarized by the Lord's words, "And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets'" (Matt 22:37-40). Love is the positive command, and not arbitrarily, but in order to live out our human nature, our telos, to be like God. There is no telos if there is no Creator (we would be equal to a rock, just matter in motion). If we do not love the least of us, why should our Father in heaven love us? If we do not forgive the least of us, why should our Father forgive us? (See "The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant," Matt 18:21-35). In participating in the nature of God, we spread love throughout the world. God bless you and I pray you will not turn from Him. At the end of the day, loving God is a matter of your free choice, an acceptance of His invitation. Freewill is something only a Creator can give...accidental byproducts of random natural processes are slaves to determinism and cannot freely choose to love (rocks, fish, stars, chemicals, Darwinian primates cannot love) only created, rational beings can choose to love.
I think you'll see that I do discuss the ostensibly positive commandments in the paragraph that runs "The only Commandments with any ostensible positive content are those about honoring one’s parents and God. But these offer only the façade of a real concern for values." The rest of what you say is more or less addressed by the rest of the article.
On the contrary, a Creator God is antithetical to the idea of free will. An entity that makes you, knows everything about you, including your whole future, who could stop you from reaching your destiny if you wanted, is not an entity capable of bestowing free will. And no major religious thinker has ever been able to defend the compatibility of real free will involving an ability to do otherwise.
I came down to the comments to write something similar to Andrew, but I see he beat me to it. I agree with the author Ben Bayer that the Ten Commandments don't really teach virtue. Most of the Old Testament laws were essentially legal restrictions for the specific nation of ancient Israel. No one would pull up a list of a country's laws today and expect them teach how to be a truly good and mature person. In that regard, I think "the golden rule" as Andrew pointed out is a much better starting place for morality. To go deeper in Christian ethics, you'd need a helpful theologian as a guide to explore what being a "good and mature person" means according to entire Bible and all of Christian history.
I think teaching the Ten Commandments is fine from a "legal history" perspective, since so much of the West's legal system was inspired by the Bible, so I could see it having a valid place in standard curriculum (but mandatorily posting it on the wall is really silly). But as a Christian, I'm really not a big fan of people cherry picking something like the Ten Commandments, and thinking it's going to make better, more "Christian" people.
The real weight of Christianity always was and always will be the God-man Jesus Christ -- who taught us we can be forgiven, redeemed, and enjoy union with the true Father of the universe. It's mystic; it's transformational. By Christian doctrine, Jesus fulfilled the Ten Commandments anyway (and the rest of them), and He offers a new kind of existence that brings maturity and goodness instead of blindly following rules out of fear of punishment (i.e. "perfect love casts out fear..."). Of course, loving God -- union with God -- will never be seen as a virtue by anyone who doesn't believe God exists. So for that reason, I can't really blame atheists for not valuing Christian virtues.
Good read, Ben! Lot of great ideas here about the kind of morality needed to form mature people.