42" tall

I don't think I was that tall until I was about seven or eight.

Whoa. I was 36" when I was twelve. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be 5'10".

Too funny not to share. We are doing an Arts & Letters event at the theater tonight. Actors reading short stories. Brad Leland (who plays Buddy Garrity on Friday Night Lights) is reading a story about a dentist/former college linebacker, who is shy. Instead of saying "Oral hygiene" is said "Oral whoregiene". Got a good laugh.

Aims, this is the dorkiest thing EVER, but if you have a chance, point Joe towards this picture I took in the grocery store last night: [link]

Entirely random question that google is giving me no help with, so I figured the hivemind might know: Why do Christians believe in following the ten commandments, and why only those as opposed to all the rest? This came out of a discussion that I was having with my officemate about Catholicism, and I found a Christian Bible verse (in Acts, I think) that said that Christians don't need to be subject to all the commandments of the Torah, but just to the Noahide laws. So why did those first ten commandments stay?

Wikipedia gives reasons why certain Christian groups don't believe the ten commandments are binding, but I can't find anything on why the groups that do believe they are binding believe that.

Steph, I have shown him the picture and his face lit up and he started cracking up.

Hmm. I would think, and I was raised Christian, that it's because the Commandments are very specific on being Commandments -- not a lot of wiggle room -- whereas most of the other rules, from Levitcus mostly, I believe, are more like strongly worded suggestions.

But my strongest argument, which goes against a lot of people who have firm religious views, is cynical: that the Bible, OT or NT, was written by humans and interpreted by humans, who basically kinda suck and want to get their way all the time.

Don't mean to piss anyone off: I'm a pretty strong "belive what you believe" person, but I genuinely believe that to be the most valid reason, basically.

if you want to read the short story that Brad had the little slip up in, here is the link to it: [link] It's a nice story! I like it.

Hmm. I would think, and I was raised Christian, that it's because the Commandments are very specific on being Commandments -- not a lot of wiggle room -- whereas most of the other rules, from Levitcus mostly, I believe, are more like strongly worded suggestions.

Interesting. In the Jewish view, they're all commandments, and those first ten are sort of like an outline or table of contents -- all the other ones fall into one of the general categories outlined by those ten. (My googling about this didn't actually answer my question, but did tell me that a phrase from the Mt. Sinai passage that most Christian bibles translate as "These are the Ten Commandments," uses the Hebrew word d'varim, which can mean either "sayings" or "things," and not mitzvot, which means commandments. I have no idea what that signifies or if it's important to anything.)

But is there somewhere in the Christian Bible that says anything about following the ten commandments or not? I found passages saying that Christians don't have to follow "the law," but what made those ten special, so that they do have to be followed (at least according to some)?

(This question occurred to me a few days ago, then I was reminded of it by a conversation this afternoon, and now I'm frustrated at google for not giving me an answer. Google should know all!)

And that, Hil, is where my knowledge ends. It's a good question, though. Goodness, it should be covered somewhere; there's so many ruckuses on "Obey the Ten Commandments!" v. "Only the Ten and the GAY stuff from Leviticus!" v. "Screw the Ten, mind the GAY!" that someone should have covered it.