Do You Have To Believe
in God to Be Ethical?
UUCB January 2, 2005

Ethics - Definition
 Webster’s - normal state of humans’
 Essential quality of one’s own character
 Standards of conduct
 Whose standards?
 Community
 Profession
 Social Contract?

Ethics - Purpose
 Ethics - clarify the
way people normally
behave toward each
other.
 Creates trust and
safety
 Golden rule(s)

Global Ethic?
 Ethics often seen as
specific to culture
 Is there a universal
basis?
 Could respect be a
universal?
 Standards are based
on what? Why?
 Rules for “goodness”

Standards / Rules Based on
Needs
 Need for safety = Standard that protects
 Canary
 Need for rules = standard for obedience
 Penguin
 Need for winning = standard for competition
 Eagle
 Need for community = standard for
relationship/diversity
 Barn Swallow
 Need for self-expression = standard for variety &
freedom
 Swan

Different Ethics
 Canaries, Penguins and Eagles
Fear based = respect for authority

Ethics include obedience to higher authority

Mix up ethical and legal

Seek to preserve the traditional order

See success as a measure of “goodness”

Hard work and good connections - model citizen -

image
 Community is similar to self
 Authority externalized (God)

Different Ethics con’t
 Barn swallows and Swans
Experienced based

Seek greatest good - other focused

Value diversity of thought, people, experience

Love options

Look to “spirit” vs.. Letter

Value self-expression

Community is larger than self

Authority is internalized


Integrating Differences
 Respect others needs
 Make sure they are met or that
you understand and will address
that need.
 Don’t ignore or disparage
 All ethical actions should:
 Not put others at risk
 Be extended to all others (as
rules)
 Promote success in life
 Promote relationship
 Allow for a range of expression

Being Ethical
 Caring about your fellow humans
 Expressing that care by meeting their needs
 Respecting the spark of divinity that resides in
each or the goodness in each soul
 Trust that each is doing their very best
 Have patience, allow for personal space and no
coercion
 Listen actively so understanding is recognized
 See the value of the other perspective
 Include others in the decision
 Incorporate the value of authority, if needed in
ways that address all of these needs

Albert Schweitzer
 First thought of humans is,
“I’m alive”
 Reverence for Life is first
ethic.
 Second ethic is surrender
to life - not control of it.
The exaltation found in
being alive is the source
of all ethics.
 Thus veracity -
authenticity is the ground
of virtue.
 Sincerity is thus the first
ethical quality.

Albert Schweitzer
 Loving the life in me I must then love the life in all other
beings
 Goodness becomes enhancing the life in all other and in
myself and in the development of all beings to their
highest possibility.
 Evil is what hampers or eliminates life.
 I believe that the life of the soul is as great as the life of
the body. So respect is key to ethics.
 Ethics becomes spiritual when it puts us into harmony
with the universe.
 As the universe seems to move toward complexity and
toward life, then a reverence for life and all that that
means seems to me to be the basis for ethics.

Universal Ethics
 Reverence for all life
 Working to enhance
life and the
development of all
living things
 Respect for all living
beings as they strive
to live as I do