This morning, I happened upon a blog that listed a number of thought provoking question. One of the questions was “Do you follow the ten commandments?”
The ten commandments are pretty basic to decent human behaviour – so yes, I generally follow the ten commandments. (Nobody is perfect). I kept thinking about this. I know why I follow the commandments. They make sense. They are the foundation of a constructive life. If I did not follow the commandments, my life would be in chaos. I would be filled with guilt, in trouble with the courts, lose my job, I would drive away friends and family – there would be constant negative consequences.
I was taught the ten commandments by the time I was three years old. Even then, I am pretty sure I could understand the consequences of murder, lying and stealing or the benefit of honoring one’s parents or setting aside one day a week to honor life and creation.
What I can’t understand, is why the powers that be felt it necessary to teach me that if I broke the commandments, God would smite me down and I would spend eternity burning in hell. Seems kind of overkill for anything a tot might be capable of.
Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie 
It seems that God is incapable of keeping its own commandments, is it too smitten down by its creator and burning in hell?
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From what I have seen in my life, the only real hell is the one we create in our own lives/existence. My vision of God now isn’t so much a single entity, but the lifeforce that permeates the universe so anything ‘God’ does is more a consequence of all that humanity is doing. (if that makes any sense). And of course that is just my opinion on the matter.
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A Catholic priest told me once that there’s really only one sin– self-centeredness– and every other sin is a branch from that one.
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Makes sense – especially if that means a person has zero respect or consideration for anyone else. That would allow you to do anything harmful to anyone.
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All we have are opinions.
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This is true!
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I’m like you. I think it’s all in how you value and treat people.
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