[ethbr1]

'Thou shalts' tend to be antithetical to free thinking. If nothing else, because it absolves readers from having to independently consider things and encouraging relying on community and/or leader dogma.

We can quibble about whether or not dogmatic interpretations are in the original work or were layered on top by the organized church, but at the root of both is the idea that some things must be believed without questioning.

Up and down this thread there are notes about people who were raised in a religious tradition and then branched out -- that's great, but you all are also the exceptions.

There are far more people who believe what they're told, as a consequence of religious indoctrination, until the day they die.

And because of that, on the whole, the Bible (as used in modern Christianity) is anti- free thought.