I've noticed before that the writers of the bible had a fairly good grip of mutual altruïsm. They saw that societies could only flourish if people shared and worked together, instead of locked up all their food for themselves.
My point is that this behaviour is FAR older than the bible, predating it by millions of years. Judging from the location of fossils, many prehistoric carnivores hunted in packs. That means they abandoned a solitary life, because team work was safer: If they couldn't find food, someone else would probably share it with you. And hey!!! We're back at the vampire bats! Yep, the altruistic behaviour of our South-American bats (who feed unfortunate, hungry bats) is in fact....
mutual altruism.
Moses did a good job of telling what he saw in nature, but it was not new. It would be unfair to give the bible credit for 'inventing' this type of behaviour. A little bit of logic would leed to the same conclusion. (Up to now, I didn't even know this was in the bible, so there you have it.)
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While we're on the subject of morality: I don't think we should follow the 10 commandments without some critical examination! Following something blindly is never a smart thing to do.
For example: Mutual altruism is not always preferable: Several years ago we had to write a paper, and we could do that in groups of two. If we wanted, we could do it alone. I delibaretely choose to do it alone, because I knew from experience that by working together we'd risk writing the same things twice, or both NOT writing about certain things, because we thought the other would cover that topic.
It would be like going after the deer yourself (and NOT calling/paging/faxing your cro-magnon friend). If you are comfortable that your hunting skills will suffice, you can go after the deer youself to get the big price. I actually ended up having a very nice grade on that paper. I think it was because I had full control over the assigment (but I needed to do a little more work).
Does Moses mention that?
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If you are interested in a critical examination of the 10 Commandments, I recommend this link: http://www.atheists.org/christianity/hangemall.html
"Thou shallt not kill", yet God kills performs the greatest act of genocide by drowning the world in the Noachian Flood. I wouldn't want ot worship such a mentally unstable guy. Have you noticed that he comes to his senses after the Flood?:
KJV bible wrote: 20And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
21And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. [Gen. 8:20-21]
He's like a homicidal maniac that comes to his senses after a killing spree. 'Perhaps I was a bit harsh in killing EVERYONE and EVERYTHING. Sorry Noah, won't do it again, now go have some babies. I know you'll all be committing incest, but I'll look the other way. Damn, those burnt offerings smell good!'