Lyrics Why We Don't Need 10 Commandments - George Carlin

Why We Don't Need 10 Commandments

Folks here’s something else I got a problem with, the Ten Commandments.
Here’s my problem.
Why are there ten?
You don’t need ten.
I think the list of commandments was deliberately and artificially inflated to get it up to ten.
It’s a padded list.
Here’s what they did.
About 5000 years ago a bunch of religious and political hustlers got together to try to figure out how to control people, how to keep them in line.
They knew people were basically stupid and would believe anything they were told so they announced that God had given them some commandments.
Up on a mountain, when no one was around.
God had given them the Ten Commandments.
But let me ask you this.
When they were sitting around making this shit up, why did they pick ten?
Why ten?
Why not 9 or 11?
I’ll tell you why because sounds official.
10 sounds important.
They knew if it was people wouldn’t take it seriously.
Say, what, are you kidding me, the 11 commandments?
Get the fuck out of here.
But 10. 10 sounds important.
10 is the basis for the decimal system.
It’s a decade.
It’s a psychologically satisfying number, the top 10, the 10 most wanted, the best 10 dressed.
So having Commandments was really a marketing decision.
And to me it’s clearly a bullshit list.
It’s a political document artificially inflated to sell better.
I’m going to show you how you could reduce the number of commandments and come up with a list that’s a little more workable and logical.
I’m going to start with the first three.
And I’ll use the Roman Catholic version because those are the ones I was taught as a little boy.
I am the Lord thy God thou shalt not have strange gods before me.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.
Thou shalt keep Holy the Sabbath.
Right off the bat, the first three.
Pure bullshit.
Sabbath day Lord’s name.
Strange gods.
Spooky language.
Spooky language, designed to scare and control primitive people.
In no way does superstitious nonsense like this apply to the lives of intelligent civilized humans in the 21st Century.
You throw out the first three commandments.
You’re down to 7. Next, honor thy father and mother.
Obedience.
Respect for authority.
Just another name for controlling people.
The truth is, obedience and respect should not be automatic.
They should be earned.
They should be based on the parents’ performance parent’s performance.
Some parents deserve respect, most of them don’t period.
You’re down to six.
Now, in the interest of logic – something religion is very uncomfortable with – we’re going to jump around the list a little bit.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Stealing and lying.
Well actually these two both prohibit the same kind of behavior.
Dishonesty stealing and lying.
So you don’t need two of them.
Instead you combine them and you call it thou shalt not be dishonest.
And suddenly you’re down to five.
And as long as we’re combining I have two others that belong together thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.
Once again these two prohibit the same kind of behavior.
In this case, marital infidelity.
The difference is.
Coveting takes place in the mind and I don’t think you should outlaw fantasizing about someone else’s wife.
Otherwise what’s a guy going to think about when he’s waxing his carrot?
But marital fidelity is a good idea so we’re going to keep the idea and call this one: thou shalt not be unfaithful.
And suddenly we’re down to four.
But when you think about it.
Honesty and fidelity are really part of the same overall value.
So in truth.
You could combine the two honesty commandments with the two fidelity commandments and give them simpler language, positive language instead of negative and call the whole thing thou shalt always be honest and faithful.
And we’re down to three.
They’re going away fast.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.
This one is just plain fucking stupid.
Coveting your neighbor’s goods is what keeps the economy going.
Your neighbor gets a vibrator that plays Oh Come All Ye Faithful.
You want to get one too.
Coveting creates jobs leave it alone.
You throw out coveting you’re down to two now the big honesty and fidelity commandment and the one we haven’t talked about yet thou shalt not kill.
Murder.
The fifth commandment.
But when you think about it.
When you think about it, religion has never really had a big problem with murder.
Not really.
More people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason.
All you have to do is look at Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Kashmir, the Inquisition, the Crusades and the World Trade Center to see how seriously the religious folks take thou shalt not kill.
The more devout they are the more they see murder as being negotiable.
It’s negotiable.
It depends.
It depends.
It depends on who’s doing the killing and who’s getting killed.
So with all of this in mind.
I leave you with my revised list of the two commandments.
Thou shalt always be honest and faithful to the provider of thy nookie and thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless of course they pray to a different invisible man from the one you pray to.
Two is all you need Moses could have carried them down the hill in his fucking pocket.
And if they had a list like that, I wouldn’t mind those folks in Alabama putting it up on the courthouse wall.
As long as they included one additional commandment.
Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself.
Thank you thank you.
Thank you everybody.