Which of the Ten Commandments are laws in the United Kingdom?

Answer 1

A:The sixth, eighth and ninth commandments have loose parallels in the laws of the United Kingdom, but are not the basis of those laws. The tenth commandment, in part, protects the rights of slave-owners and these are contrary to British law:

• The first three commandments are essentially different ways of saying to worship no other god, rules which are outside the scope of the laws of the UK.
• The next commandment says to do no work on the Sabbath, nor to require or request others to do so or even allow an animal to do so, and is almost never honoured. In any case, there is no good reason for our laws to mandate how we should spend Saturdays or Sundays.
• The fifth commandment is to honour your father and your mother, a useful social rule usually observed out of filial love rather than by bringing to mind a commandment. In any case, whether we honour our parents is not something that can usefully be enforced by law.
• The sixth commandment, do not kill, parallels the law but is too general to be the foundation for criminal law, and not relevant to civil law.
• The seventh commandment,do not commit adultery, is not part of British law. In Old Testament times it was adultery for a man to have sex with the wife of another man but, even if married, not with a single woman, widow or prostitute.
• The eighth commandment, do not steal, is too general to be the foundation for criminal law, and not relevant to civil law.
• The ninth commandment, do not bear false witness against your neighbour, would have originally been intended for some situations now seen as perjury, but has not formed the basis of our criminal law in respect to perjury. It is also commonly seen as a commandment against telling lies, but this has never been incorporated into law.
• The tenth commandment, do not covet that which belongs to your neighbour, including his wife and slaves, would be difficult to enforce in law. How do you pass laws against thinking enviously? In any case, wives are no longer thought of as property in Western society, and slaves are no longer permitted.