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What
is the Global Ethic?
•
What
is the Golden Rule?
• The
Golden Rule in world religions
• Every
human being
•
must
be treated humanely
• Have
respect for life!
• Deal
honestly and fairly!
• Speak
and act truthfully!
• Respect
and love one another!
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“The
Global Ethic means neither a global ideology, nor a single
unified global religion transcending all existing religions,
nor a mixture of all religions. Humanity is weary of unified
ideologies, and in any case the religions of the world are
so different in their views of faith and ‘dogmas’,
their symbols and rites, that a ‘unification’
of them would be meaningless, a distasteful syncretistic
cocktail.
Instead,
the Global Ethic seeks to work out what is already common
to the religions of the world now despite their differences
over human conduct, moral values and basic moral convictions.
In other words, the Global Ethic does not reduce the religions
to an ethical minimalism but represents the minimum of what
the religions of the world already have in common now in
the ethical sphere. The Global Ethic is not directed against
anyone, but invites all, believers and non-believers, to
make this ethic their own and act in accordance with it.”
Hans
Küng
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What is Global Ethic?
 The
term Global Ethic refers to a set of common moral values
and ethical standards which are shared by the different faiths
and cultures on Earth.
These
common moral values and ethical standards constitute a humane
ethic, or, the ethic of humanity. In view of the process of globalization
this ethic of humanity has been termed by the famous Roman Catholic
theologian and philosopher Professor Hans Küng as the Global
Ethic.
Although
the concept of a Global Ethic
was at first introduced by Prof. Küng in 1989 it is, in his
own words, "not a new invention but only a new discovery"
of common principles which are as old as humankind.
The Global
Ethic is not a new religion but a set of common moral
values and ethical standards which are shared by all faiths and
belief systems. According to Prof. Küng, "The Global
Ethic does not reduce the religions to an ethical minimalism
but represents the minimum of what the religions of the world
already have in common now in the ethical sphere. The Global
Ethic is not directed against anyone, but invites all,
believers and non-believers, to make this ethic their own and
act in accordance with it." Furthermore, it "is no substitute
for the Torah, the Sermon on the Mount, the Qur'an, the
Bhagavadgita, the Discourses of the Buddha or the Analects
of Confucius".
The Global
Ethic was adopted in form of the Declaration Toward
A Global Ethic by the Parliament of the World's Religions
on 4 September 1993. Thereby, for the first time in human history,
representatives of the different religions and faiths agreed on
a set of common moral values and ethical standards which are shared
by all of them. Never before in the history of religions had this
happened! Herein lies the tremendous significance of the Declaration
Toward A Global Ethic for the future of humankind.
What
are the basic contents of the Global Ethic?
In fact,
at the root of this fundamental consensus of values, standards
and attitudes is a simple but very profound principle: "Treat
others as you would like to be treated" or "Do not treat
others as you would not like to be treated". That is the
so-called GOLDEN RULE of life which is found in the scriptures
of all major faiths – in different words but with the same
divine meaning. All other common precepts shared by our different
faiths derive from this basic law of humane coexistence of humanity.
'Declaration
Towards a Global Ethic' pdf
file.
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