Practice transparent religious governance
Use accountable procedures for finances, discipline, leadership, and complaints.
Skip to atlas contentM234 · Religious Community and Leadership Ethics M597 · Christian Science Moral Practice M182 · Religious and Spiritual Responsibility M071 · Justice, Law and Governance M267 · Public Health and Health Equity M404 · Duties to Future Generations M146 · Community, Education and Spiritual Responsibility M251 · Children's Rights and Development M402 · Duties to Future Generations M381 · Humanitarian Action and Impartial Service M294 · Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity M120 · Family, Sexuality and Relationships M344 · African Communal Duties and Peoples' Ethics M200 · Professional and Computing Ethics M405 · Duties to Future Generations M178 · Animals, Environment, Health and Technology M551 · Moravian Unity, Liberty and Love M476 · Earth Community and Ecological Integrity M407 · Climate Ethics and Planetary Responsibility M292 · Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity M033 · Life, Violence and Peace M303 · Responsible Business Conduct M295 · Anti-Corruption and Public Integrity M277 · Anti-Trafficking and Victim Protection
WORLD MORALS EDITION XXI
World Morals — a shared human inquiry
An interactive atlas of moral teachings across the world's religious and secular traditions — from ancient scriptures to modern ethics.
Comparative atlas · Original English corpus · Evidence before conclusions
A mapping is not a verified quotation. Workbook labels are preserved. An absent mapping does not mean rejection. We do not rank the moral worth of any system.
- Moral teachings
- 610
- Religious systems
- 52
- Nonreligious systems
- 41
- Source evidence rows
- 10620
Many traditions. One invitation to understand.
Find a teaching, follow its source anchors, and explore common ground without erasing differences. Every number describes only the systems represented in this edition.
610 teachings found · Edition XXI
Practice unselfed love
Love without making personal advantage, possession, praise, or repayment the controlling motive.
Practice worship sincerely
Avoid using worship, prayer, or ritual merely for status, manipulation, or display.
Prefer restoration when possible
Repair harm and reintegrate wrongdoers where appropriate.
Prepare fairly for public-health emergencies
Allocate risks, protections, treatments, and burdens through equitable and accountable procedures.
Preserve cultural diversity for the future
Protect diverse languages, traditions, knowledge, and cultural expression for transmission to future generations.
Preserve cultural memory responsibly
Transmit history without distortion or hatred.
Preserve family contact when safe
Avoid unnecessary separation and support continuing family relationships consistent with the child's safety.
Preserve future generations' freedom of choice
Do not irreversibly narrow the political, cultural, environmental, or technological options available to future persons.
Preserve independence of humanitarian judgment
Resist political, military, economic, or sectarian control that would distort needs-based assistance.
Preserve integrity in public service
Require honesty, impartiality, competence, and responsibility from public officials.
Preserve intergenerational responsibility
Maintain care, memory, and duties across generations.
Preserve positive African cultural values
Support cultural values that advance dignity, solidarity, justice, freedom, and human flourishing.
Preserve professional audit trails
Maintain records sufficient to review consequential decisions and changes.
Preserve the common heritage of humankind
Safeguard natural, cultural, scientific, and historical inheritances whose value belongs to humanity as a whole.
Preserve truthful digital records
Maintain reliable evidence and audit trails.
Preserve unity without demanding uniformity
Maintain community around essential commitments while allowing legitimate diversity of perspective and practice.
Prevent environmental harm before it occurs
Prioritize prevention, precaution, and careful assessment over remediation after serious ecological damage.
Prevent foreseeable climate harm
Reduce activities that create serious, avoidable climate-related injury to people, communities, species, and ecosystems.
Prevent illicit enrichment
Do not use public office to accumulate unexplained wealth through corruption.
Prevent suicide and self-destruction
Protect life while responding compassionately to despair.
Prevent supply-chain complicity in abuse
Assess and address serious harms connected to suppliers, contractors, and business relationships.
Prevent trading in influence
Do not buy, sell, or exploit improper influence over public decisions.
Prevent trafficking in persons
Use coordinated legal, educational, social, and economic measures to prevent exploitation and trafficking.