Why Everyone Needs the First Commandment

...Even Atheists!

Most people don’t have a problem with some of the Ten Commandments. There are atheists, for example, who will admit that one should not kill, steal or lie. Thus, posting those specific Commandments in public classrooms or buildings would pose no problem.

The problems begin with the First and most important Commandment, which deals with the honor and worship of God. The Commandment commands: “I am the Lord thy God: thou shalt not have strange gods before me.”

Non-believers maintain that this Commandment and the two after it impose religious claims upon them and, therefore, should not be publicly displayed. They say they should not be forced to acknowledge a God that they do not believe exists. In a pluralistic society, the First Commandment must go.

The Need for the First Commandment

Such reasoning is wrong. Ironically, the First Commandment pertaining to God has non-believers in mind. It has its application for them. Everyone, even atheists, needs the First Commandment if there is to be order in society.

Indeed, the atheist is more than just a person who doesn’t believe in God. It goes much deeper. Catholic thinker Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira once defined an atheist as “an egalitarian who, to avoid the absurdity of affirming man is God, commits the absurdity of declaring that God does not exist.”

Thus, atheists reduce the belief in God to a matter of personal choice. They claim believers derive value from believing in any god (with a small “g”), whereas unbelievers rely upon things like science, progress or humanity to satisfy their higher aspirations. Beliefs are different for everyone and must be respected.

How Atheists Become Supreme Gods

Since significant minorities don’t believe in God, atheists conclude that the nation must act as if God does not exist. He must be banished from public discourse and squares because God has no real existence outside the creative power of the believer’s imagination.

By making these claims, atheists can then tranquilly set themselves up as supreme gods above all others without falling into absurdity. They can be termed supreme gods (with a small “g”) because they claim the right to eradicate God (with a capital “G”) by reducing him to a figment of the imagination and, therefore, socially irrelevancy.

The First Commandment Prevents False Atheist Gods

Hence comes the need for the First Commandment. It prevents the “absurdity of affirming man is God” by recognizing the One True God and His Law.

It denounces these absurd atheist “gods” that arbitrarily deny the One True God. It affirms the existence of a God independent of human belief or imaginings. This God is not created. He is who is. He exists regardless of what others think or do not think. He alone is to be adored.

The First Commandment acknowledges the existence of an almighty and loving God who provides for humanity with His Law found in the Ten Commandments. This law is the foundation for customs, cultures and civilizations that bring order to human existence.

This God is the only defending force that stands against those who surreptitiously declare themselves gods by claiming God does not exist and imposing their agendas upon all society.

“If God Did Not Exist, Everything Would Be Possible”

Indeed, when individuals declare there is no god, the greatest absurdities emerge. Dostoevsky once said, “If God did not exist, everything would be possible.”

Without God, there could be no objective moral standards based on eternal and unchanging truths. Thus, passions become unbridled, and lust is taken to its extremes. When people make themselves gods, it is impossible to be truly free since they become slaves dominated by every whim and fantasy.

Without an understanding of the order God established, the universe becomes unintelligible, and humanity is reduced to flotsam in a sea of nonsense without meaning and purpose.

Without God, reality can be altered. Men can be women, and women can be men. People can identify as anyone and anything and demand that they be recognized as such. There would be no Eternal Truth to serve as an anchor.

Avoiding the Cruelest Tyrannies

However, the worst consequences of this world without God are when these false atheist gods take their fatal denials to their final consequences. They promise freedom and deliver tyranny. They demand to be adored.

Indeed, there is no crueler master than these extreme atheist gods that declare “the absurdity that God does not exist.”

Throughout history, these strange gods can be found directing the gulags and concentration camps, torture chambers and coliseums, guillotines and terrors. They find their greatest expression in the modern era, where communist regimes, nihilist philosophies and wokism hold sway, devoid of all compassion.

Wherever unbridled passion reigns, one finds the atheist gods who resent anyone who dares to oppose them. They are ever ready to do everything to suppress and silence those who uphold the Faith.

Overcoming the Darkness

The only thing that stops this tyranny is the First Commandment whereby believers invoke a higher law and a higher power. God alone is the only one able to overcome the darkness reigning inside those souls who set themselves up as strange gods.

Thus, everyone needs the First Commandment. Believers need it to take their love of God to ever-greater heights.

Yes, even those atheists who desire some order need this Commandment for their own protection lest chaos be unleashed upon the earth.