Universal Ethics

The various religions and philosophies have vastly different moralities; from Christianity to Buddhism, Islam to Daoism, capitalism to socialism, Zionism to libertanianism, few share the same definitions of these complex (and changing) terms, and thus debates are usually unfruitful and meaningless, yet most of the time we focus on futilely fighting with each other.

Generally, ethics can be compared both quantitatively and qualitatively.

• Quantitatively: How many people are benefited by the morality?
• Qualitatively: In what way are they benefited?

So the quantitative part means, for this religion or philosophy, to whom are we do be kind to?
And the qualitative part means, for this religion or philosophy, how do we act in order to be kind?

And the quantitative part is simple to compare - as it is just a type of magnitude. In the quantitative sense, "more" is "better."
The qualitative part is more complex to compare, but regarding the qualitative part, generally we find that there are certain rules that appear to be universal or near-universal - our universal ethics.

A short list is:

1. Don't kill
2. Don't rape
3. Don't steal
4. Don't lie

This is thus a short list to "test" your ethics and morality - if, for example, you are killing somebody in the name of your religion, philosophy, or other -ism, you are using it to justify your committing those heinous acts.

Of the above, the 4 universal crimes are, of course, not of equal weight.

1. Killing is the worst, because it is permanent (a killed person can never be revived and is gone forever).
2. Raping is the 2nd worst, because it is sometimes permanent (can result in the birth of new life, as well as lifelong trauma).
3. Stealing is the 2nd least, because it is sometimes reversible (stolen goods can often be returned by the thief).
4. Lying is the least, because it is reversible (lies can be corrected, by the liar or even others with evidence).

In other words:
Life > Love > Value > Truth

But all of these virtues (the reverse of the crimes above) all stem from one "mother" virtue: compassion - the core attribute that we need to live harmoniously with others. Conversely, the "mother" detect is selfishness, from which apathy towards the harming of others is born.

The above list of four is simple to learn and simple to follow. Simply do not do those things. Use the list as a simple "evil test."

If evil is being committed, analyze it using the Evil Triangle.