8 of the 10 commandments may be
distorted and thereby claimed to have a
moral\functional basis, but no such basis can be claimed on "I'm your
God..."
This seems pretty basic to me. If you are going to espouse basic tenets of a religion, there had better be the big guy with the stick
available to bring damnation (or equivalent) down on those transgressors. Either that or you'll have to hope that everyone can extrapolate
their actions past their nose. Rather difficult given that most people are extremely myopic in their cause and effect reasoning.
nor on "Make no altars of
mine...". In the christian bible, the difference between "love the other
as yourself" [social principle]
The basis for this is simple: if no one is willing to start a fight no one will get into fights. This is probably the most lofty ideal of
the 10, and encompasses the other 8 very nicely without all the other verbiage. Truly if the leaders/writers of the day felt that their
people were fundamentally able to see more than 1 or 2 moves ahead, really the only thing needed was the one above, with the admonition of
the I'm your God...
and
"love the other as yourself for I'm your God" [original commandment] is
not emphasized enough.
Their really is no difference. The christian god put down these commandments with the original idea that they all be followed because god
(or his agents) will thump you if you don't.
I truly believe that the most successful religions in the world tend to have basic tenets that visibly (though not always truly) improve
one's life even if followed blindly coupled with the threat of death/damnation/caste reduction etc. It's much easier to threaten than
explain...
The single biggest logistical problem with them is that not everyone subscribes to exactly the same tenets or interprets them the same
way...