"Don't be an asshole." Be kind to kind people and kinder to unkind people; they need it more. Kill Hitler, of course. Letting him live would mean being an asshole to all the people whose lives he turned into sadness and horror. But otherwise see the good in people when you can. Walk a mile in their shoes.
My own.
I am a social animal and as I do not live alone on a desert island, I have to get along with those that I share this planet with. I generally base my morality on 'How would I feel if someone did that to me?'
I would like to be free to make choices that are in my best interest, but to make things work best, my choices should not be detrimental to the wellbeing of others.
Not always easy and often subjective, but that's what I love about life.
Humans work best when we work together and care about each other.
And the question assumes I was once religious. As far as I can remember I have always been an atheist.
For me, any action or attitude is moral to the degree that it increases happiness and decreases suffering of sentient beings, and vice-versa.
Unfortunately to those around me, I don't tend to follow one. In some instances I might show empathy, but in most cases I'm kind of an asshole. Ok, I'm mostly an asshole. But for the people that look past my asshole-ness, they get to be around the best of who I truly am. As the adage goes, "If you can't handle me at my worst, you don't deserve me at my best."
The non-religious replacement for "I'll pray for you" is "I am actively working on a method to effectively address that issue and solve it forever. But I need more funding".
I follow "Don't be such a dick all the time", as taught by Jesus.
My code is to not cause willful harm either emotional or physical. If I do I accept responsibility for it. By either correcting it, apologizing for it if it was unintentional. Forgiveness from a person goes along way with me. Rather then one from an imaginary being. There is no real accountability for that kind of forgiveness.
I use the Golden Rule also. The thought that people are morally better because they follow a specific belief system is utter nonsense. History is littered with examples of unspeakable atrocities carried out in the name of ((ENTER YOUR FAVORITE DEITY HERE)), or have we as a species forgotten the Spanish Inquisition, the Crusades, etc.?
I don't need religion to tell me how to act responsibly and basically one has to try to help others where possible. Be a kind person and treat all others with dignity even if they rub you up the wrong way.
My moral code consists of two principles. (6 words total) (1,) Never compromise yourself. (2.) No ego satisfaction.
Interesting, Tommy. I like the never compromise yourself, but I'm a little bemused by the (2). I'm not sure I know what an ego is, or what you specifically mean by it.
EGO; The self regarded as acting independent of causes and conditions.
No ego satisfactions. Never exalt yourself and vent your emotions to inflate your mind or magnify your pride against life.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Pretty simple really.
It gets complicated by the incredibly wide variety of "others", who have many different needs, problems, understandings, life conditions etc. For instance, some people are masochistic (extreme example) so should they hurt others? But there are many finer shades of difficulty and paradox if you think about it. But I think that the statement is basically in the right direction.
If we all did this we wouldn't have masochists.
As a rule, I try not to cause harm. Except for spiders... Somehow I feel they deserve squishing because they're so dang scary.
I find spiders creepy, too, but they do a hell of a lot more good for us than bad, so don't squish too many. Without them we'd be overrun by insects, and they are unlikely to bite much larger critters like ourselves, preferring to flee if at all possible.
My then 10 year old son claimed the proof for God was that spiders can't fly. It's as convincing an argument as any.
Yes, the golden rule. It's actually based on pure subjectivity. Honestly, consider how you would like to be treated, and treat others accordingly.
There's no such thing as objective morality, anyway. Objectivity is the worst kind of morality. Objectivity doesn't care about anything and has no biases for or against any actions. Objective (uncaring, unbiased) morality amounts to amorality.
Treat people as you wish to be treated, simple as that. Always try to put yourself in another person's shoes, try to understand how you would feel if you were in their position and act accordingly. I do what I naturally believe is right and in most cases, I do the right thing, which is weird considering I'm a black sheep in my family. Empathy gives us all we need to set up our own personal moral codes and we certainly don't need a non existent being to tell us how to live, especially when that being is not fo this world or our circumstance.
I follow the moral code of the old Germanian tribes. It is not black and white like xfinity, but covers all the gray areas that life gives us. I can go into more detail if anyone is interested.
I am interested; if you can recommend anything I could read, thanks.
I ascribe to a patchwork or morals and ethics to guide my life. The basis of all major faiths is a set or morals. Legal systems and governments also contain similar sets of beliefs on behavior. Those are my sources for the material for my quilt. The quilt will never be complete because the pattern changes as I continue to learn and grow as a person and alter its make up.
I use a kind heart as a compass. Works for me. Most of the time anyway. Lol.