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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.

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610 teachings found · Edition XXI

M423 · Cultural and Natural Heritage Stewardship

Do not destroy heritage for short-term gain

Reject avoidable damage to cultural or natural heritage for profit, war, ideology, convenience, or political domination.

4 / 93 systems mapped · 4.3%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M069 · Justice, Law and Governance

Do not discriminate unjustly

Reject unequal treatment based on irrelevant status distinctions.

39 / 93 systems mapped · 41.9%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M199 · Professional and Computing Ethics

Do not enable unlawful professional practice

Do not lend credentials, signatures, systems, or authority to unqualified or fraudulent work.

2 / 93 systems mapped · 2.2%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M052 · Property, Work and Economic Justice

Do not engage in predatory lending

Avoid debt practices that trap vulnerable borrowers.

31 / 93 systems mapped · 33.3%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M048 · Property, Work and Economic Justice

Do not exploit workers

Avoid coercive, unsafe, degrading, or predatory labor practices.

33 / 93 systems mapped · 35.5%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M470 · Jewish Mitzvot and Applied Justice

Do not favor the rich or poor in judgment

Decide cases by relevant facts and law rather than wealth, poverty, status, fear, or sympathy alone.

6 / 93 systems mapped · 6.5%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M486 · Indigenous Peoples' Rights and Ethical Duties

Do not forcibly assimilate Indigenous peoples

Reject policies intended to erase Indigenous identity, culture, institutions, language, or collective existence.

1 / 93 systems mapped · 1.1%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M036 · Life, Violence and Peace

Do not glorify cruelty

Avoid celebrating suffering, domination, or humiliation.

44 / 93 systems mapped · 47.3%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M006 · Truth, Speech and Knowledge

Do not gossip maliciously

Avoid spreading harmful, unnecessary, or unverified information.

42 / 93 systems mapped · 45.2%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M593 · Ananda Marga Yama and Niyama

Do not hoard beyond reasonable need

Limit accumulation that deprives others, dominates attention, or exceeds a responsible standard of living.

1 / 93 systems mapped · 1.1%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M504 · Physician's Pledge and Medical Professionalism

Do not let prejudice interfere with medical duty

Provide professional care without discrimination based on identity, belief, status, disability, or political affiliation.

3 / 93 systems mapped · 3.2%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M003 · Truth, Speech and Knowledge

Do not lie

Avoid intentional falsehood, fraud, duplicity, and manipulative concealment.

41 / 93 systems mapped · 44.1%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M173 · Animals, Environment, Health and Technology

Do not manipulate people deceptively

Avoid exploiting cognitive vulnerabilities through covert persuasion.

35 / 93 systems mapped · 37.6%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M452 · Soto Zen Precept Ethics

Do not misuse intoxicants or delusion

Avoid substances, ideologies, and habits that cloud moral awareness or encourage harm.

5 / 93 systems mapped · 5.4%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M231 · Religious Community and Leadership Ethics

Do not misuse spiritual leadership

Do not exploit religious authority for control, wealth, sexual access, or personal domination.

16 / 93 systems mapped · 17.2%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M183 · Religious and Spiritual Responsibility

Do not misuse the divine name

Treat sacred names and invocations with reverence rather than deception or contempt.

9 / 93 systems mapped · 9.7%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M021 · Life, Violence and Peace

Do not murder

Do not intentionally and unjustly kill a human being.

44 / 93 systems mapped · 47.3%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M471 · Jewish Mitzvot and Applied Justice

Do not place a stumbling block before another

Do not exploit another person's ignorance, vulnerability, impairment, or predictable weakness.

6 / 93 systems mapped · 6.5%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M432 · Bodhisattva Ethics

Do not praise oneself by disparaging others

Avoid using moral, spiritual, or social status to elevate oneself through contempt for others.

4 / 93 systems mapped · 4.3%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M444 · Soto Zen Precept Ethics

Do not praise oneself by slandering others

Do not build status or moral superiority through disparagement of other people.

3 / 93 systems mapped · 3.2%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M607 · Eckankar Spiritual Freedom and Responsibility

Do not pressure others into a spiritual path

Respect each person's freedom to test teachings, follow conscience, or choose a different religious direction.

1 / 93 systems mapped · 1.1%
Workbook confidence: Developing
M285 · Bioethics and Human Dignity

Do not reduce persons to genetic characteristics

Treat the human genome as relevant information without defining the whole dignity or identity of a person.

13 / 93 systems mapped · 14.0%
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.

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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.