I am not atheist but I agree the ten commandments are just common sense rules to keep society harmonious. I agree that a non-believer could come up with a pretty similar set of guidelines for an orderly society.
A) not true; the first four govern worship and unless we’re talking about a really intellectually honest non-believer who is going to govern his self worship he isn’t going to come up w/ these rules
B) the question of the “common sense” of the commandments side steps the central point if we are talking about freedom & why the FFs grounded it in “endowment by the Creator”. Man is valuable because he is made in God’s image, and as such he has intrinsic worth and dignity. He isn’t just the most advanced accident of a series of occurrences in a mindless universe who can then lord it over his fellow creatures to bring about his idea of paradise on earth.
Do I believe we should enforce religious adherence upon society? No. Do I believe that what we are told in scripture regarding what will happen to societies when they deny God’s existence? Yes.
Romans 1 puts it most succinctly, and history has demonstrated this truth over and over again, just as we are witnessing the devolution of ours back into tribalism as we’ve abandoned our faith.
It’s a law of nature as certain as gravity.
