For my creative assignment I decided to create a website/blog on the Ten Commandments. I created a website because I wanted to focus on what we have been learning in class in relation to religion not being exposed in the media. The Internet is the largest form of communication in the media today. I wanted to choose a medium that was not only recognisable, but was also relevant to what we had been learning in class. We have been learning about how popular the Internet is, especially amongst young people, and because religion is not often seen in the media, it is gradually disintegrating from the priorities of young people today. If young people are going to take notice of things such as religion, the main place they’re going to be able to do this is somewhere they are familiar with. Therefore, by creating a website, it will be accessible to Internet users everywhere, as apposed to it only being accessible via a disk or email, for example.
On the side of my website I have included links that investigate interpretations of the Christian 10 commandments in other religions, or if there are none, different religions’ own rules that are the foundations of their religious lifestyles. I thought it was important to incorporate this onto my website because it showed how similar some religions are in regard to their rules and lifestyles, and yet how different they can be at times. There are some rules that are parallel within all the religions, which shows that these rules can also be regarded as moral rules for all people through out the world, and are even laws in the world today.
I used videos on my website to, not only add interest to the page, but also to give people a basic visual understanding of what each commandment means. I have only showed videos for the Christian commandments, because they are the foundation of the commandments and rules of a lot of the other religions explored on my website. Each video shows basic images that represent the basic meaning of each commandment. These images are broken up by the bible passage of each particular commandment. I used this technique because it would help keep the viewers eye’s fixed on what they were watching, and really understand what is being said in each one.
The First Commandment video shows images that show emphasis on the number ‘1’. I did this to stress the importance of having only one God, and having no other gods than God himself. The image that says ‘There is no one like Jesus our God’ adds to this emphasis, and gives the video further explanation through image. The last image showing the large clutter of letter and number shaped biscuits with the word ‘one’ written down the bottom is an important image as it is symbolic in saying that all the ‘gods’ in the world are grouped together and mean nothing because we have our ‘one’ God, who stands out and is separate from the rest.
The Second Commandment video shows images of celebrities, people worshipping statues, and people in religious images taking the place of religious figures. This shows how people create idols for themselves that are not God.
The Third Commandment video shows an image of God’s name written on a nametag. This is symbolic as it is telling us that we should call God by his name like we would call anyone else by his or her name. We should use it respectfully, not like it has been used in the image of the woman holding cardboard that reads ‘God Damn’. We should love God and have respect for his name. The last image is strong because brings forward the issue of people using God’s name in vein in a humourous way, but still delivers the message of the Third Commandment.
The Fourth Commandment shows images that represent what God is saying in the passage as it plays on. Because it is such a long passage, showing the imagery of what is being said helps to deliver the message and making clear what God wants us to do on the day of rest.
The Fifth Commandment shows images of parents and their children showing love for each other. This is important, as it is a heartfelt sequence of imagery that evokes loving feelings for those who love us, which is what God wants us to do.
The Sixth Commandment, The Seventh Commandment, and The Eighth Commandment are all similar videos showing images of people committing the sins of murder, stealing, and adultery. The videos have no music except the sound of a heartbeat playing as each image plays. This represents the life changing results of what can occur from committing these sins. It gives an anxious sensibility to the video, which is making the video seem like a warning from God to not commit these sins.
The Ninth Commandment video shows images of people telling malicious lies to hurt others. The last image is an image of a girl who has the word ‘lies’ written on her lips, which is symbolic for telling lies. God asks us to not tell lies, and to have honesty and truth throughout our lives.
The Tenth Commandment video shows images of people being bitter about what others have and desiring what they cannot attain and do not deserve. It also shows an image of a girl helping her sport opponent up from the ground. I chose to include this image because it expresses how God wants us to act. He wants us to help those who we feel are our ‘opponents’ and not be bitter towards them.
