religious laws go against human nature!

It is said that the best way to know the true nature of a society is to look at its laws, and in the Ten Commandments - all the things Moses said God told him we should not do - we can see what people really want to do or what their human nature drives them to do. And the same goes for the moral laws of other religions.

The Ten Commandments of Moses form the basis of the Judaic-Christian religions and were preceded by many codes of conduct from the Sumeric civilization - from whence Abraham originated - particularly the Hammurabi Code of 1750 BC.

In the Exodus scene, c.1250 BC, when Moses came down from the mountain with the ark holding the Ten Commandments in two tablets - representing the Covenant of the Heart to match the Covenant of the Blood - and found his people worshipping the Golden Calf, a powerful picture is provided showing:

• the type of gods that were worshipped at that time;
• how the Jews worshipped;
• the immense difficulty the Jews had in worshipping a God who had no physical presence and offered them no reward, other than being His Chosen People; and
• how Moses, himself, broke a Commandment.

While Moses was on the mountain, his brother Aaron placates the fearful Israelites by melting the gold they had taken from Egypt and forming from it a Golden Calf - actually a bull - for them to worship. In those times, worship took more the form of debauchery than prayer, so it was not the dancing that upset Moses as much as the Golden Calf they were dancing around.

Upon seeing the idol, Moses smashed the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments (he later got them replaced), and then melts the golden idol, grinds it to power, mixes it with water and forces all to drink the brew. God then 'commanded' he went on a killing spree in which 3,000 men were killed. So much for 'thou shall not kill', but purists say that killing blasphemers is not breaking a commandment - in which case Moses may have committed the first jihad (albeit against his own people).

However, even after this terrible punishment, the Israelites could not forsake their old gods and their old ways, so Moses made them wander in the desert for 40 years before Joshua led them into the Promised Land of Canaan where, true to form, they continued to break every one of the Ten Commandments - and thrived.

Even way back then, people had the good sense to realize that religious laws go against human nature and are impossible to live by.