Skip to content
Guest Thinkers

A Secular Ten Commandments?

"Can the Ten Commandments be understood apart from religion?" William Galston reviews a new book which argues the Ten Commandments are not religious in nature.

William Galston of the Brookings Institute reviews a new book by David Hazony which argues the Ten Commandments are not religious in nature: “Hazony is hardly the first to regard the Ten Commandments as the basis of a good society. But it is implausible to suggest that its vision is equally acceptable to secularists and believers. Yes, secularists can invoke reason to justify some version of commandments five through then. But the first four, from God the Redeemer of Israel through God the Giver of the Sabbath, rest on an act of acceptance that is at its core religious.”


Related

Up Next
While philosophers of yore postulated on human nature, today's thinkers approach tough questions with the tools of cognitive science. A philosophy professor on 'experimental philosophy'.