Skip to atlas content
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.
A glass globe connects manuscripts in a circular hall for studying world moral traditions — conceptual artwork
AI-generated conceptual artwork; not an application screenshot.
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.

Reset

610 teachings found · Edition XXI

M427 · Buddhist Moral Discipline

Speak with goodwill

Let truthful speech be motivated by care rather than cruelty, revenge, or humiliation.

9 / 93 systems mapped · 9.7%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M195 · Professional and Computing Ethics

State estimates and limitations honestly

Do not exaggerate certainty, capability, cost, schedule, performance, or safety.

7 / 93 systems mapped · 7.5%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M508 · Engineering and Technology Professional Ethics

State technical claims honestly and realistically

Base estimates, claims, forecasts, and representations on available evidence without distortion.

2 / 93 systems mapped · 2.2%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M578 · Seventh-day Adventist Whole-Life Ethics

Steward time, abilities, property, and natural resources

Manage personal capacities, possessions, opportunities, and the environment responsibly for service and future well-being.

5 / 93 systems mapped · 5.4%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M342 · African Communal Duties and Peoples' Ethics

Strengthen mutual respect and tolerance

Maintain relationships that promote tolerance, reciprocity, social trust, and peaceful coexistence.

14 / 93 systems mapped · 15.1%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M149 · Community, Education and Spiritual Responsibility

Support reconciliation between groups

Repair inherited hostility and social division.

39 / 93 systems mapped · 41.9%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M236 · Religious Community and Leadership Ethics

Support recovery from addiction

Respond to addiction with accountability, treatment, compassion, and community support.

25 / 93 systems mapped · 26.9%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M309 · Ethics of Ageing and Older Persons

Support self-fulfillment throughout life

Preserve opportunities for learning, creativity, spirituality, and meaningful contribution in old age.

3 / 93 systems mapped · 3.2%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M493 · Tenrikyo Joyous-Life Ethics

Sweep away selfish habits of mind

Recognize and reduce greed, anger, hatred, partiality, and other habits that obstruct compassionate living.

6 / 93 systems mapped · 6.5%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M359 · Moral Education and Conscience

Teach moral values by example

Demonstrate honesty, kindness, restraint, and responsibility so moral education is embodied rather than merely stated.

17 / 93 systems mapped · 18.3%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M390 · Tolerance, Pluralism and Peace Education

Teach peaceful conflict transformation

Develop knowledge and skills for dialogue, mediation, nonviolent action, and reconciliation.

16 / 93 systems mapped · 17.2%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M019 · Truth, Speech and Knowledge

Teach truth responsibly

Transmit knowledge accurately and without coercive manipulation.

43 / 93 systems mapped · 46.2%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M001 · Truth, Speech and Knowledge

Tell the truth

Speak and act honestly rather than intentionally misleading others.

44 / 93 systems mapped · 47.3%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M610 · Eckankar Spiritual Freedom and Responsibility

Test spiritual teachings through personal experience

Examine spiritual claims through sincere practice, reflection, experience, and responsible judgment rather than coercion.

1 / 93 systems mapped · 1.1%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M430 · Buddhist Moral Discipline

Train conduct before seeking higher insight

Treat basic moral discipline as a necessary foundation for concentration, wisdom, and spiritual development.

5 / 93 systems mapped · 5.4%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M521 · Nichiren Buddhist Human Revolution

Transform oneself to transform society

Change destructive habits and cultivate courage, wisdom, and compassion as the basis for social improvement.

4 / 93 systems mapped · 4.3%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M436 · Bodhisattva Ethics

Transform personal virtue into service

Use discipline, wisdom, patience, generosity, and compassion for the benefit of others.

16 / 93 systems mapped · 17.2%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M560 · Unity and New Thought Spiritual Practice

Translate spiritual oneness into racial equality

Make belief in human unity visible through opposition to racism, inequity, and discriminatory conduct.

2 / 93 systems mapped · 2.2%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M403 · Duties to Future Generations

Transmit a habitable Earth

Protect ecological systems so future generations inherit conditions capable of supporting life, health, and flourishing.

10 / 93 systems mapped · 10.8%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M421 · Cultural and Natural Heritage Stewardship

Transmit heritage to future generations

Preserve cultural and natural heritage so future generations can know, use, interpret, and appreciate it.

7 / 93 systems mapped · 7.5%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M442 · Universal Responsibility and Compassion

Treat all humanity as one family

Place shared human dignity and common vulnerability above divisive identity or ideology.

17 / 93 systems mapped · 18.3%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M518 · Quaker Testimony Ethics

Treat every person as equally precious

Recognize equal spiritual worth and the gifts each person can contribute.

1 / 93 systems mapped · 1.1%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M588 · Cao Dai Love, Justice and Religious Harmony

Treat humanity as one spiritual family

Regard people across nations and religions as brothers and sisters sharing a common divine origin.

6 / 93 systems mapped · 6.5%
Workbook confidence: Developing

Provenance: Universal Moral Code — Statistical Atlas, Edition XXI. Names, definitions and source anchors are preserved verbatim. This atlas describes its corpus, not all beliefs or practices worldwide.

FIELD GUIDE · PURPOSE AND BOUNDARIES

World Morals: practical use and context

World Morals is a source-oriented atlas for readers comparing moral teachings across religious and secular traditions. It provides ways to explore a finite corpus while keeping the difference between a recorded mapping and independently verified evidence visible.

↑ Back to the application
A glass globe connects manuscripts in a circular hall for studying world moral traditions — conceptual artwork
Application artwork reused from its publication image family. The interactive interface is above.

Start with a teaching, then follow its evidence

Choose a teaching or a system rather than beginning with a universal conclusion. Read its definition and source basis, then inspect the associated mappings. Open the source and methodology views to understand how a relationship entered the corpus. A label such as official source or specific anchor describes a record’s provenance category; it is not a substitute for reading the cited passage in context.

Use the comparison lab and matrix to formulate questions. Shared mappings may suggest a topic worth investigating, while differences may reflect wording, edition coverage or research gaps. Neither a checked cell nor an empty cell establishes what every adherent believes or how a whole society behaves.

A careful comparative reading exercise

Select a familiar moral theme and compare its records across two systems. Write down the source labels, what has actually been quoted and what remains a summary. Follow the source references before drawing a conclusion. Record a disagreement or missing passage as an open research issue rather than filling the gap with an attractive generalization.

For a classroom discussion, separate three questions: what the dataset records, what a primary text says, and how people interpret or practice it. The atlas directly organizes the first question. The other two need contextual reading, historical scholarship and, where appropriate, the voices of the communities being discussed.

Coverage is not a ranking of traditions

The corpus is an edition with explicit scope and unresolved research statuses. Counts describe records and relationships, not moral superiority, global prevalence or the completeness of a tradition. Geographic and historical displays disclose where research is missing. English source material remains in its original language even when navigation and explanatory interface copy are Spanish.