So Herman Cain not for the ten commandments?

[Johonny]

Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain on Sunday said US communities that want to ban mosques have a right to do so, as he backed opponents of a mosque being built in Tennessee."Islam is both a religion and a set of laws -- Sharia laws. That's the difference between any one of our traditional religions where it's just about religious purposes," Cain told Fox News Sunday.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-republican-hopeful-backs-ban-mosques-183842282.html

I guess the next time some conservative nut complains about gay marriage and throws out bible verses you can just point out great conservatives like Herman Cain thinks the bible has no law! Michele Bachmann told the crowd that the founders of the United States ...recognized the Ten Commandments as the foundation of our laws!! So on one hand you can candidates that tell you US law based on bible and others telling you the bible ain't got no laws.

Can't wait for the next Republican debate. LOL

[JDPriestly]

1. So where is the law against coveting what your neighbor's got?

Where is the law against graven images?

(Hollywood stars, aren't they our equivalent of graven images?)

Just in case someone tries to tell you that the Ten Commandments are the "basis of our laws." There is some truth to that, but certainly the Ten Commandments did not just come out of nowhere.

If you want to reach back for the basis of our law, you have to go to Hammurabi


If anyone ensnares another, putting a ban upon him, but he cannot prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death. (Thou shalt not bear false witness.)

If anyone brings an accusation against a man, and the accused goes to the river and leaps into the river, if he sinks in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river proves that the accused is not guilty, and he escapes unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser. (Similar to some Medieval practices.)

If anyone finds runaway male or female slaves in the open country and brings them to their masters, the master of the slaves shall pay him two shekels of silver. (I think this is also in the Bible in different words with a different remedy.)

If anyone brings an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if a capital offense is charged, be put to death. (We dropped this one for some reason. Maybe it didn't work out too well? Sounds draconian to me.)

If a builder builds a house for someone, and does not construct it properly, and the house which he built falls in and kills its owner, then the builder shall be put to death. (Another variant of this is, If the owner's son dies, then the builder's son shall be put to death.) (Sounds more like Chinese law.)

If a son strikes his father, his hands shall be hewn off.
If a man gives his child to a nurse and the child dies in her hands, but the nurse, unbeknown to the father and mother, nurses another child, then they shall convict her of having nursed another child without the knowledge of the father and mother and her breasts shall be cut off.
If anyone steals the minor son of another, he will be put to death.
If a man takes a woman as a wife, but has no intercourse with her, this woman is no wife to him.
If a man strike a free-born woman so that she lose her unborn child, he shall pay ten shekels for her loss.
If a man puts out the eye of a patrician, his eye shall be put out.
If a man knocks the teeth out of another man, his own teeth will be knocked out.
If anyone strikes the body of a man higher in rank than he, he shall receive sixty blows with an ox-whip in public.
If a freeborn man strikes the body of another freeborn man of equal rank, he shall pay one gold mina.
If the slave of a freed man strikes the body of a freed man, his ear shall be cut off.
If anyone commits a robbery and is caught, he shall be put to death.
If anyone opens his ditches to water his crop, but is careless, and the water floods his neighbor's field, he shall pay his neighbor corn for his loss.
If a judge tries a case, reaches a decision, and presents his judgment in writing; and later it is discovered that his decision was in error, and it was his own fault, he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case and be removed from the judge's bench...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi

282 laws in total according to Wikipedia.

I have read that this is believed to have inspired the laws in the Bible. This Code was probably very familiar to people in the Middle East back when the Bible was written or assembled.

Here is an interesting discussion about the differences between Jewish law and the Hammurabic Code.

http://ohr.edu/ask_db/ask_main.php/210/Q2/

Nevertheless, many scholars argue that the laws of the various Middle Eastern religions are based on the Hammurabic Code. As here:

1760 BC This is not a Christian nation? What did the president mean? » Corpus …
www.caller.com/news/2009/apr/11/this-is-not-a ...
1760 BC - Our system of morals is not derived from the Bible. It derives from codes of conduct that predate the bible by over a thousand years, such as the Code of Hammurabi, circa 1760 BC. The Torah and the Qur'an, among others, adopted many of these moral codes, and, of course, the New Testament incorporated many of them as well. But they are no more Christian than they are Muslim or Buddhist or Hindu. Likewise, our system of laws is not based, in whole or in part, on the Bible.

http://www.google.com/search?q=Code%20of%20Hammurabi%20Bible&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&source=hp&channel=np#q=Code+of+Hammurabi+Bible&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=5ts&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=np&prmd=ivns&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=DDwjTtubF5HZiAKfl-TBAw&sa=X&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11&ved=0CGMQ5wIwCg&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=97eede9ed711c932&biw=960&bih=473

I would submit that Jesus, although he always remained a Jew, did not respect those who prioritized literal adherence to the Jewish laws over being a good human being.

I tend to agree with Jesus on this. I think a lot of modern Jewish leaders take a much less rigid view of the Jewish law.