What pivotal US laws were uniquely inspired by the 10 commandments?

[seer]

Of course you don't. But that's because of your bias, and doesn't reflect badly on me.

Honesty on my part involves acknowledging that the 10 commandments were added to English law by Alfred the Great, and that that was the first law code that applied to most of what is now England.

Honesty on your part requires acknowledging that there were English law codes before that which did not include the 10 commandments; that Alfred only put the commandments in the preface to his law code, not among the laws themselves; and that the ten commandments were removed from English law long before the founding of the US.

That is nonsense Roy because this has never been just about the TC when it comes to English common law, if you actually read Dr. Lee's paper it includes much more, from both the Old and New Testaments. And then I gave a link to Blackstone and his Christian influence.


THE INFLUENCE OF BIBLICAL TEXTS UPON ENGLISH LAW

https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cg...enn_law_review

Moses, Blackstone, and the Law of the Land

BY HERBERT W. TITUS

https://lonang.com/commentaries/conl...w-of-the-land/

[Mountain Man]

According to Edward G Lengel, a biographer of Washington:

Was Washington a Christian? If anyone asked him, he might well have said yes. He was familiar with the Bible and even quoted it on occasion. But did he truly believe? That is an entirely different matter. Intelligent arguments can and have been made on both sides of the subject. Ultimately, however, they all come down to speculation. Thanks in large part to Washington’s own efforts—he concealed his inner feelings from everyone, except perhaps Martha— we can never really know exactly what he did or did not believe about God. Alas, this truth remains unsatisfying. Americans have never really accepted it and probably never will.

I don't care about the opinion of a biographer. I'm going by what Washington himself said and wrote.

[seer]

That depends on exactly what particular writings of Locke influenced them.

John Locke (1632-1704) was an English political theorist during the Enlightenment era and the author of A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689), An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), and Two Treatises on Government (1690). From 1760 to 1800, Locke’s works on government and religious toleration made him one of the most cited secular authors in America. His Second Treatise on Government taught the founding generation important lessons about the social contract, natural rights, and the right of revolution.

https://constitutioncenter.org/educa...f%20revolution.

From the second Treatise:

But though this be a state of liberty, yet it is not a state of licence: though man in that state have an uncontroulable liberty to dispose of his person or possessions, yet he has not liberty to destroy himself, or so much as any creature in his possession, but where some nobler use than its bare preservation calls for it. The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions: for men being all the workmanship of one omnipotent, and infinitely wise maker; all the servants of one sovereign master, sent into the world by his order, and about his business; they are his property, whose workmanship they are, made to last during his, not one another’s pleasure: and being furnished with like faculties, sharing all in one community of nature, there cannot be supposed any such subordination among us, that may authorize us to destroy one another, as if we were made for one another’s uses, as the inferior ranks of creatures are for our’s.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7370/7370-h/7370-h.htm

Because we are all God's workmanship, in fact His property, we have no right to use and abuse our fellow man. According to Locke that is what grounds our human right.

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

I don't care about the opinion of a biographer. I'm going by what Washington himself said and wrote.

And as Lengel, the biographer noted, we have no idea what Washington actually thought. What he wrote may well have been premised on political expediency.

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

From the second Treatise:




Because we are all God's workmanship, in fact His property, we have no right to use and abuse our fellow man. According to Locke that is what grounds our human right.

Interesting then that Washington et al did not extend the influence of Locke upon their thinking, to their slaves.

[seer]

Interesting then that Washington et al did not extend the influence of Locke upon their thinking, to their slaves.

No they did not. But that wasn't the point, was it...

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

No they did not. But that wasn't the point, was it...

If these men were so affected by Locke's views, as you are contending, then it most certainly was very much the point.

[Mountain Man]

And as Lengel, the biographer noted, we have no idea what Washington actually thought. What he wrote may well have been premised on political expediency.

As I already noted, there is nothing at all to suggest that Washington's actual religious beliefs differed from those he expressed in his speeches and personal writings. Sure, you can speculate that maybe he really believed something contrary, but that would be as stupid as me assuming that you really don't believe the nonsense you write.

[seer]

If these men were so affected by Locke's views, as you are contending, then it most certainly was very much the point.

No, I said they largely got their view of God given rights from Locke (Blackstone figures in too), and that God is the God of the Bible. Whether they practiced what they preached is another question. Many did BTW and were dead set against slavery.

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

Exactly. It might possibly transfer with rigorous indoctrination—quite often, it spectacularly fails—but it’s naive to think outmoded moral pronouncements displayed on cheesy posters have any effect.

These people do not want children to think. They want their views/beliefs to be unquestioningly accepted.

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

As I already noted, there is nothing at all to suggest that Washington's actual religious beliefs differed from those he expressed in his speeches and personal writings. Sure, you can speculate that maybe he really believed something contrary, but that would be as stupid as me assuming that you really don't believe the nonsense you write.

And as I noted, we have no idea what Washington actually believed or thought.

As a modern example, do you really think Trump believes the comments he has made about religion? Or is he merely appealing to the religious views of his base?

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

No, I said they largely got their view of God given rights from Locke (Blackstone figures in too), and that God is the God of the Bible. Whether they practiced what they preached is another question. Many did BTW and were dead set against slavery.

I sincerely doubt that the god/deity these men may have believed in had much in common with your view of deity. And as is so often the case they evidently did not practise what they may have believed.

[Roy]

[QUOTE=seer;n1595932]

[Honesty on my part involves acknowledging that the 10 commandments were added to English law by Alfred the Great, and that that was the first law code that applied to most of what is now England.

Honesty on your part requires acknowledging that there were English law codes before that which did not include the 10 commandments; that Alfred only put the commandments in the preface to his law code, not among the laws themselves; and that the ten commandments were removed from English law long before the founding of the US./quote]

That is nonsense Roy because this has never been just about the TC when it comes to English common law, if you actually read Dr. Lee's paper it includes much more, from both the Old and New Testaments. And then I gave a link to Blackstone and his Christian influence.

This thread is just about the TC. But I have no problem acknowledging that Alfred also included other Biblical text in the preface to his laws, and even that there was some Christian influence on earlier law codes.

You, on the other hand, do seem to have a problem acknowledging facts that do not fit your views.

[seer]

I sincerely doubt that the god/deity these men may have believed in had much in common with your view of deity. And as is so often the case they evidently did not practise what they may have believed.

No, many of them were probably more devote than me, but again you have no idea what you are talking about.

The phrase "Founding Fathers" is a proper noun. It refers to a very specific group of people, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Yes, there were other important players, like Jefferson, whose thinking deeply influenced the shape of our nation and who were not in attendance, but the 55 Fathers make up the core.

The denominational affiliation of these men is a matter of public record. Among the delegates were 28 Episcopalians, 8 Presbyterians, 7 Congregationalists, 2 Lutherans, 2 Dutch Reformed, 2 Methodists, 2 Roman Catholics, 1 unknown and only 3 deists--Williamson, Wilson and Franklin, this at a time when church membership entailed a sworn public confession of biblical faith.(John Eidsmoe, Christianity and the Constitution, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1987), p. 43.)

This is a very revealing tally. It means that the members of the Constitutional Convention, the most influential group of men shaping the political foundations of our nation, were almost all Christians, 51 of 55--a full 93%. Indeed, most were Calvinists (the Presbyterians and the Dutch Reformed), considered by some to be the most extreme and dogmatic form of Christianity.

https://www.str.org/w/what-was-the-f...ding%2Bfathers

The Continental-Confederation Congress, a legislative body that governed the United States from 1774 to 1789, contained an extraordinary number of deeply religious men. The amount of energy that Congress invested in encouraging the practice of religion in the new nation exceeded that expended by any subsequent American national government. Although the Articles of Confederation did not officially authorize Congress to concern itself with religion, the citizenry did not object to such activities. This lack of objection suggests that both the legislators and the public considered it appropriate for the national government to promote a nondenominational, nonpolemical Christianity.

Congress appointed chaplains for itself and the armed forces, sponsored the publication of a Bible, imposed Christian morality on the armed forces, and granted public lands to promote Christianity among the Indians. National days of thanksgiving and of "humiliation, fasting, and prayer" were proclaimed by Congress at least twice a year throughout the war. Congress was guided by "covenant theology," a Reformation doctrine especially dear to New England Puritans, which held that God bound himself in an agreement with a nation and its people. This agreement stipulated that they "should be prosperous or afflicted, according as their general Obedience or Disobedience thereto appears." Wars and revolutions were, accordingly, considered afflictions, as divine punishments for sin, from which a nation could rescue itself by repentance and reformation.

The first national government of the United States, was convinced that the "public prosperity" of a society depended on the vitality of its religion. Nothing less than a "spirit of universal reformation among all ranks and degrees of our citizens," Congress declared to the American people, would "make us a holy, that so we may be a happy people."

https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel04.html

[Hypatia_Alexandria]

]No, many of them were probably more devote than me

Speculation that fits with your own bias.

but again you have no idea what you are talking about.

From what you have written, that comment would apply to you.

The USA was not founded on the ten commandments or Christianity. That Christianity in its various guises was the dominant religion of those colonies is another matter.