Lately I’ve been considering the question of morality and the role it has played in my life. Many people consider a sense of morality essential to living a healthy life and most human societies are based on some form of moral code. Usually these moral standards are derived from one of the major world religions or philosophical systems. Morality defines standards of behavior in a society and serves as a guideline in differentiating between right and wrong. We find it in the west in the form of the ten commandments and in the east in the form of the precepts of Buddhism as well as in many other forms. Its encoded into many of our legal systems and conditioned into us from an early age. There are many common elements between the standard moral codes in use today typically defining prohibitions like not killing, not stealing, not lying and not committing adultery. Many of these standards are hard to argue with because most would consider them common sense.
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