Editing Golden Rule (section)

==Secular context==
===Global ethic===
{{Main|Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration}}
The "Declaration Toward a Global Ethic"<ref>[http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma/globalethic.html "Towards a Global Ethic"]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071025224936/http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma/globalethic.html |date=25 October 2007 }} ''Urban Dharma – Buddhism in America''. (This link includes a list of 143 signatories and their respective religions.)</ref> from the [[Parliament of the World's Religions]] (1993) proclaimed the Golden Rule ("We must treat others as we wish others to treat us") as the common principle for many religions.<ref name="globalethic">[http://www.religioustolerance.org/parliame.htm "Towards a Global Ethic"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416182137/http://www.religioustolerance.org/parliame.htm |date=16 April 2021 }} (An Initial Declaration). ReligiousTolerance.org. Under the subtitle, "We Declare", see third paragraph. The first line reads, "We must treat others as we wish others to treat us."</ref> The Initial Declaration was signed by 143 leaders from all of the world's major faiths, including Baháʼí Faith, Brahmanism, Brahma Kumaris, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Indigenous, Interfaith, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Native American, Neo-Pagan, Sikhism, Taoism, Theosophist, Unitarian Universalist and Zoroastrian.<ref name="globalethic" /><ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/_includes/FCKcontent/File/TowardsAGlobalEthic.pdf |title=Parliament of the World's Religions – Towards a Global Ethic |access-date=12 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130411195746/http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/_includes/FCKcontent/File/TowardsAGlobalEthic.pdf |archive-date=11 April 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref> 

====Humanism====
{{See also|Humanism}}
In the view of [[Greg M. Epstein]], a [[Secular humanism|Humanist]] [[chaplain]] at [[Harvard University]], {{"'}}do unto others'&nbsp;... is a concept that essentially no religion misses entirely. ''But not a single one of these versions of the golden rule requires a God''."<ref>{{cite book|title= Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe|last= Esptein|first= Greg M.|year= 2010|publisher= HarperCollins|location= New York|isbn= 978-0-06-167011-4|page= [https://archive.org/details/goodwithoutgodwh00epst/page/115 115]|url= https://archive.org/details/goodwithoutgodwh00epst/page/115}} Italics in original.</ref> Various sources identify the Golden Rule as a humanist principle:<ref name="Thinkhumanism.com">{{cite web |url=http://www.thinkhumanism.com/the-golden-rule.html |title=The Golden Rule |website=Think Humanism |access-date=12 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161219225648/http://www.thinkhumanism.com/the-golden-rule.html |archive-date=19 December 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

{{blockquote|Trying to live according to the Golden Rule means trying to empathise with other people, including those who may be very different from us. Empathy is at the root of kindness, compassion, understanding and respect&nbsp;– qualities that we all appreciate being shown, whoever we are, whatever we think and wherever we come from. And although it isn't possible to know what it really feels like to be a different person or live in different circumstances and have different life experiences, it isn't difficult for most of us to imagine what would cause us suffering and to try to avoid causing suffering to others. For this reason many people find the Golden Rule's corollary&nbsp;– "do not treat people in a way you would not wish to be treated yourself"&nbsp;– more pragmatic.<ref name="Thinkhumanism.com" />|sign=Maria MacLachlan|source=Think Humanism<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thinkhumanism.com/ |title=Think Humanism |publisher=Think Humanism |access-date=12 September 2013 |archive-date=21 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921135146/http://www.thinkhumanism.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref>{{verification failed|reason=URL given does not contain this passage|date=November 2024}}}}

{{blockquote|Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you. ... [is] the single greatest, simplest, and most important moral axiom humanity has ever invented, one which reappears in the writings of almost every culture and religion throughout history, the one we know as the Golden Rule.

Moral directives do not need to be complex or obscure to be worthwhile, and in fact, it is precisely this rule's simplicity which makes it great. It is easy to come up with, easy to understand, and easy to apply, and these three things are the hallmarks of a strong and healthy moral system. The idea behind it is readily graspable: before performing an action which might harm another person, try to imagine yourself in their position, and consider whether you would want to be the recipient of that action. If you would not want to be in such a position, the other person probably would not either, and so you should not do it. It is the basic and fundamental human trait of empathy, the ability to vicariously experience how another is feeling, that makes this possible, and it is the principle of empathy by which we should live our lives.|sign=Adam Lee|source=Ebon Musings, "A decalogue for the modern world"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/new10c.html |title=A decalogue for the modern world |publisher=Ebonmusings.org |date=1 January 1970 |access-date=12 September 2013 |archive-date=28 July 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728170015/http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/new10c.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

====Existentialism====
{{See also|Existentialism}}
{{blockquote|When we say that man chooses for himself, we do mean that every one of us must choose himself; but by that we also mean that in choosing for himself he chooses for all men. For in effect, of all the actions a man may take in order to create himself as he wills to be, there is not one which is not creative, at the same time, of an image of man such as he believes he ought to be. To choose between this or that is at the same time to affirm the value of that which is chosen; for we are unable ever to choose the worse. What we choose is always the better; and nothing can be better for us unless it is better for all. |[[Jean-Paul Sartre]], [[Existentialism and Humanism|''Existentialism is a Humanism'']], pp. 291–292<ref>{{cite book |title= Existentialism Is a Humanism|last= Sartre|first= Jean-Paul |year= 2007|publisher= Yale University Press|isbn= 978-0-300-11546-8|pages= 291–292}}</ref>}}

====Classical Utilitarianism====
{{See also|Utilitarianism}}
[[John Stuart Mill]] in his book, [[Utilitarianism (book)|''Utilitarianism'']] (originally published in 1861), wrote, "In the golden rule of Jesus of Nazareth, we read the complete spirit of the ethics of utility. 'To do as you would be done by,' and 'to love your neighbour as yourself,' constitute the ideal perfection of utilitarian morality."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mill |first1=John Stuart |editor1-last=Sher |editor1-first=George |title=Utilitarianism |date=1979|orig-date=1861|publisher=Hackett |location=Indianapolis and Cambridge |isbn=0-915144-41-7 |page=16 |chapter=Chapter 2 - What Utilitarianism Is}}</ref>