1
Do not condemn people on the basis of their ethnicity or their color.
New Commandments
Christopher Hitchens proposed a sharply modern alternative to the traditional Ten Commandments, shifting the emphasis away from ritual obedience and toward human dignity, liberty, anti-cruelty, and moral responsibility.
Christopher Hitchens's Modern Alternative
This 21st-century list reframes the moral conversation in secular, human-centered terms rather than divine command.
2
Do not ever even think of using people as private property, or as owned, or as slaves.
3
Despise those who use violence or the threat of it in sexual relations.
4
Hide your face and weep, if you dare to harm a child.
5
Do not condemn people for their inborn nature.
6
Be aware that you too are an animal, and dependent on the web of nature. Try and think and act accordingly.
7
Don't imagine that you can escape judgement if you rob people with a false prospectus, rather than with a knife.
8
Turn off that f***ing cellphone. You can have no idea how unimportant your call is to us.
9
Denounce all Jihadists and Crusaders for what they are: psychopathic criminals with ugly delusions, and terrible sexual repressions.
10
Be willing to renounce any god or any faith if any holy commandments should contradict any of the above.
Christopher Hitchens, “The New Commandments,” Vanity Fair (April 2010). List wording also reflected in Vanity Fair’s official video, “Christopher Hitchens’s Ten Commandments”.