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Morals and ethics are the fibers that hold a community together and make it work well.
over time, some ethics and morals will change (ending slavery, allowing women to serve as ministers, the constant shifting morality over men's hair length, etc.), some others remain fairly constant throught all cultures over time (murder is bad, stealing is bad, etc.).
There are some in this post-modern age, though, who would say taht ethics and morals are purely contextual and cultural - and in many ways they are true, and much of what we think of as "moral" and "ethical" needs to be rethought, but I submit that there is a core, foundational ethic and morality, that all humans in the globe can agree on. And unlike what the Christian Right might like to say on this, if we, as a world, DO agree on a foundational basis, we will ALL need to change our behavior.
The rightists would answer this dilemma with "we must all be Christians". The more liberal minded might be willing, such as I am willing, to say it's not about one's religion (though religion has an important effect, and some religious expressions are inherently anti-world-community, e.g., fundamentalist Islam or Christianity), it's about one's ACTIONS. Morals and ethics might come from a religious sensibility, but ulimately, just cuz you say "I'm a Chrsitian" or post the ten commandments in the schools, that does not mean one is moral or ethical.
And as a world community, i think we need to agree on this base ethic: All people are created equal, have an equal right to the pursuit of happiness, have an equal right to a non-polluted environment, equal right to education, equal right to religious expression, equal right to cultural expression, and equal right to choose their own governmental process (though I should think democracy is the most inherently ethical), SO LONG AS none of those expressions intrude on the rights of others. So, all should have a right to religious expression, unless you're religious expression is "Everyone must be my religion if they are to be left alive by me!".
If we go with that basic foundational belief, and I think that's a good base system on which to form world community, it will require many changes in behavior in our own culture and government, as well as others. But I think it will make a much better world. Imagine a world in which DOW Chemical says "We will stop making this, because no one in the world deserves to have the waste product dumped on their land." Or imagine Americans saying "No, I will take a reusab;e mug to work so that I don't force petroleum waste products on people of the world." That would be cool.
And, as a side comment of a selfish nature, perhaps it would mean we open the American market to Cuban cigars again. :-)
Most everything else is just fluffery. The clothing one wears is NOT a moral/ethical choice. The kind of facial hair a men has is NOT a moral/ethical choice. Whether a woman is completely covered or not is NOT a moral/ethical choice. And, to be honest, expecting women to cover their breasts in public is not a moral/ethical choice. At least, none of these are the sense of foundationally important moraql/ethics, since the above mentioned ones might be specific religious ideas, but are not what one could ever call universal human moral/ethics.
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