10.1 Religious ethics  (Page 2/3)

In Christianity, the principle of love emerges from its teachings and controls the centre of life. In most churches, however, this has also become codified in terms of church law . This differs from one church to the next.

Fact File: excerpts from Catholic Church Law, 1983

• Canon 212, § 2. “The Christian faithful are free to make known their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires to the pastors of the Church.”

• Canon 749, § 1. “The Supreme Pontiff, in virtue of his office, possesses infallible teaching authority when, a supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful, whose task is to confirm his fellow believers in the faith, he proclaims with a definitive act that a doctrine of faith and morals is to be held as such.”

• Canon 1024. “Only a baptised male validly receives sacred ordination.”

Although the teachings of the respective religious traditions differ from each other, they have certain moral principles in common, even if the motivation for, or background assumptions of, these principles differs widely. We will now briefly look at a few of these common principles.

Neighbourly love

In nearly all the world's religions, personal morality begins with this simple concept: treat others as you would like them to treat you. This concept is known as the so–called Golden Rule and is perhaps the most basic of personal virtues.

Of course, the different faiths all have their own version of this universal message, but in essence the same directive applies. See the accompanying fact file for some examples from both religious system and from some non–religious sources:

Fact File: The Golden Rule in religion and philosophy

(Most of these examples come from www.religioustolerance.com

• Ancient Egyptian : "Do for one who may do for you, that you may cause him thus to do." – The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant
• Baha'í Faith: "Blessed is he who preferreth his brother before himself." – Baha'u'llah
• Buddhism : "...a state that is not pleasing or delightful to me, how could I inflict that upon another?" – Samyutta NIkaya
• Christianity : "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." – Luke 6:31, King James Version.
• Confucianism : "Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you" – The Analects
• Hinduism : "This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you". – Mahabharata
• Islam : "None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." Number 13 of Imam "Al–Nawawi's Forty Hadiths." 6
• Jainism : "Therefore, neither does he [a sage] cause violence to others nor does he make others do so." – Acarangasutra
• Judaism: "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man. This is the law: all the rest is commentary." Talmud
• Roman Pagan Religion : "The law imprinted on the hearts of all men is to love the members of society as themselves."
• Taoism : "Regard your neighbour's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss." T'ai Shang Kan Ying P'ien.
• Yoruba (Nigeria) : "One going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to feel how it hurts."