I wrote this several years ago.
Hopefully some of you will find it useful.

              A Human Moral Creed

The betterment of the human condition is the highest moral goal. 
Each individual needs to actively and creatively seek this throughout their life.

Respect for Individuals
Each human has the responsibility to treat every individual as a unique personality, and each has the right to be treated in the same manner.

Responsibility to Society

Each individual, who is able, has a responsibility to provide for their own and their families’ subsistence.
Each individual has a responsibility to help those in need.                                                   
Each individual has the responsibility to reach out to others around them and aid them in pursuit of the betterment of their lives.                                                                                         
Each individual has the responsibility to work with others for the general improvement of society.   
Each individual has the responsibility to ensure justice for all humans.

Self-Examination

Each individual has responsibility for their own actions.
To ensure that we are meeting our obligations and responsibilities time needs to be set aside for self-examination.
Only the individual can truly judge and improve themselves.
A person who does not lead the self-examined life cannot be truly moral.

Forgiveness
A truly moral human understands there is no perfect being.  True forgiveness of not only others but also of oneself is a key to happiness and a true moral code.

Very good, Gary, but with my penchant for succinctness I see it as:  Help, don’t hurt. 

Occam

Thanks for sharing, Gary. I am collecting as many of these as I can find to mine for ideas as I develop my own personal one. I’m sure I’ll use some of this.

What I like most is knowing that Gary lives by those words - it’s not simple rhetoric.

traveler - 24 November 2011 09:04 AM

What I like most is knowing that Gary lives by those words - it’s not simple rhetoric.

Thanks

This sounds like you took the best ideas from Kant and the virtue ethicists and blended them into a succinct set of guidelines. Excellent job.

We are told by the critics of secular humanist morality that without belief in God ingrained in human culture .

Even though I try to live by those standards myself, I must say that the “creed” is not workable.  It is inherently fraught with contradiction. It is!
The responsibility part collides with reason and understanding of human nature. And it collides with other parts of the creed itself.
An adaptation would be to form a government model based on this creed and put the responsibility on the organs of said government.(with all of the attendant utilitarianism of govt. that probably would superced the “creed”-but nonetheless I would endorse.)
The creed is nothing new, and unfortunately we have seen a million times over that these types of value systems only OPEN THE DOOR FOR THE FAR MORE PREVALENT HUMAN CREED OF OPPORTUNITY, EXPLOITATION, AND GREED.
The most common forms of human behaviorals welcome people who adhere to these creeds, it creates a wonderful template for predatorial activities.
The rain clouds have passed, you can continue the parade-sorry.

mar121y - 04 October 2012 04:24 AM

We are told by the critics of secular humanist morality that without belief in God ingrained in human culture .

Wow, you brought this back from the dead.    However I don’t understand what you are attempting to say, give it another shot.

Do as ye wish.  That shall be the whole of the law.

garythehuman - 23 November 2011 05:18 PM

I wrote this several years ago.
Hopefully some of you will find it useful.

              A Human Moral Creed

The betterment of the human condition is the highest moral goal. 
Each individual needs to actively and creatively seek this throughout their life.

Respect for Individuals
Each human has the responsibility to treat every individual as a unique personality, and each has the right to be treated in the same manner.

Responsibility to Society

Each individual, who is able, has a responsibility to provide for their own and their families’ subsistence.
Each individual has a responsibility to help those in need.                                                   
Each individual has the responsibility to reach out to others around them and aid them in pursuit of the betterment of their lives.                                                                                         
Each individual has the responsibility to work with others for the general improvement of society.   
Each individual has the responsibility to ensure justice for all humans.

Self-Examination

Each individual has responsibility for their own actions.
To ensure that we are meeting our obligations and responsibilities time needs to be set aside for self-examination.
Only the individual can truly judge and improve themselves.
A person who does not lead the self-examined life cannot be truly moral.

Forgiveness
A truly moral human understands there is no perfect being.  True forgiveness of not only others but also of oneself is a key to happiness and a true moral code.

Excellent…....and all that without the need for help from god.

Occam. - 23 November 2011 07:25 PM

Very good, Gary, but with my penchant for succinctness I see it as:  Help, don’t hurt. 

Occam

A classic Occamism!

garythehuman - 23 November 2011 05:18 PM

I wrote this several years ago.
Hopefully some of you will find it useful.

              A Human Moral Creed

The betterment of the human condition is the highest moral goal. 
Each individual needs to actively and creatively seek this throughout their life.

Respect for Individuals
Each human has the responsibility to treat every individual as a unique personality, and each has the right to be treated in the same manner.

Responsibility to Society

Each individual, who is able, has a responsibility to provide for their own and their families’ subsistence.
Each individual has a responsibility to help those in need.                                                   
Each individual has the responsibility to reach out to others around them and aid them in pursuit of the betterment of their lives.                                                                                         
Each individual has the responsibility to work with others for the general improvement of society.   
Each individual has the responsibility to ensure justice for all humans.

Self-Examination

Each individual has responsibility for their own actions.
To ensure that we are meeting our obligations and responsibilities time needs to be set aside for self-examination.
Only the individual can truly judge and improve themselves.
A person who does not lead the self-examined life cannot be truly moral.

Forgiveness
A truly moral human understands there is no perfect being.  True forgiveness of not only others but also of oneself is a key to happiness and a true moral code.

Thanks! I’m adding this to my collection!

VYAZMA - 04 October 2012 01:12 PM

Even though I try to live by those standards myself, I must say that the “creed” is not workable.  It is inherently fraught with contradiction. It is!
The responsibility part collides with reason and understanding of human nature. And it collides with other parts of the creed itself.
An adaptation would be to form a government model based on this creed and put the responsibility on the organs of said government.(with all of the attendant utilitarianism of govt. that probably would superced the “creed”-but nonetheless I would endorse.)
The creed is nothing new, and unfortunately we have seen a million times over that these types of value systems only OPEN THE DOOR FOR THE FAR MORE PREVALENT HUMAN CREED OF OPPORTUNITY, EXPLOITATION, AND GREED.
The most common forms of human behaviorals welcome people who adhere to these creeds, it creates a wonderful template for predatorial activities.
The rain clouds have passed, you can continue the parade-sorry.

Although bleak, I agree here, at least to an extent. I think some people have this creed sort of ingrained in them from both nature and nurture, while others just not so much. In addition, for religious types who really do attempt to live up to similar “creeds”, I think this sometimes dooms them to a cycle of poverty and just general victimization by the prevalence of exploitation and greed mentioned.

garythehuman - 23 November 2011 05:18 PM

I wrote this several years ago.
Hopefully some of you will find it useful.

              A Human Moral Creed

The betterment of the human condition is the highest moral goal. 
Each individual needs to actively and creatively seek this throughout their life.

Respect for Individuals
Each human has the responsibility to treat every individual as a unique personality, and each has the right to be treated in the same manner.

Responsibility to Society

Each individual, who is able, has a responsibility to provide for their own and their families’ subsistence.
Each individual has a responsibility to help those in need.                                                   
Each individual has the responsibility to reach out to others around them and aid them in pursuit of the betterment of their lives.                                                                                         
Each individual has the responsibility to work with others for the general improvement of society.   
Each individual has the responsibility to ensure justice for all humans.

Self-Examination

Each individual has responsibility for their own actions.
To ensure that we are meeting our obligations and responsibilities time needs to be set aside for self-examination.
Only the individual can truly judge and improve themselves.
A person who does not lead the self-examined life cannot be truly moral.

Forgiveness
A truly moral human understands there is no perfect being.  True forgiveness of not only others but also of oneself is a key to happiness and a true moral code.

Ah, forgiveness, now where did that wonderful idea first get emphasized for all humanity? And the other morals listed, they too, every one of them can be first found in the writings of peoples who claimed they got their morality from gods and or God. Just look at the moral codes of the Egyptians’ Maat or the Code of Hammurabi and then the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, need I go on to make my point? All these moral codes did not come from atheists. They came from theists and long before atheists decided they too should join in establishing ethical codes and, irrationally, think they are not beholding to theists, this “no gods” position and expect any person who seriously thinks about this and compares this statement to the actual historical record that obviously shows who came first with the morals and it wasn’t atheists by a long shot.

Now that we’ve gotten that straightened out, especially how modern secular humanistic morality is the product of Christian teachings of Jesus and theists and not the other way around, it’s time to announce to secular humanists that once again God has beat them to the punch. This time by having established a heavenly repository of humanitarian concern that has been influencing religious morality for over 4000 years. It’s called the Celestial Torah and it was virtually lost in Jewish hands because they lost the astrological connections without which the Celestial Torah cannot be decoded. The Zodiac is necessary and so Jewish religious history records the “Lost Tribes of Israel” as the 12 Tribes should have stood for the Zodiac. Christianity’s 12 Apostles attempts to reestablish the Zodiac’s importance in symbolic form to Scriptures but once again, Christianity in Paul’s and then Rome’s hands lost the astrological connections to the whole meaning of the Messiah-Christ. Well, I guess God
got tired of seeing this charade continue on with Jews and Christians and now Muslims all not having a clue that the Bible is chuck full of astrological coding that connect
“As Above” with “So Below”. And it turns out the Humanitarian Model God has placed in our skies is coming of Age now, and there’s a whole new Christianity reborn as
the Celestial Torah’s spiritual meaning for humanity is relearned and spread worldwide. Celestial Torah Christianity at: http://biomystic.org/celestialtorah.htm. Note the Humanitarian Model evolution through time and then see where God has placed the Humanitarian Model in the sky where no man, no religion, no government, can touch it. It’s pure and unadulterated knowledge that is now universally known because that’s been the Plan all along. See God’s Cosmic Plan in the Gospel of Humanity at: http://biomystic.org/gospelofhumanity.htm

This is the evolutionary and spiritual truth: Humanism begins and ends with humanity within Creation evolving into God. It’s how Creation gets created and God born “unbegotten” as it is known in gnostic circles. And it’s already a done deal. We’re just living our parts for our times in the Creation Drama out. What, you thought “reality” is for real? Not really. It’s maya, illusion, Shakespeare’s Grand Play and us only actors playing out archetypal dramas preparing our souls for existence in what is called The World To Come, heaven, our real future state of being. But this is where we learn how to live there without messing it up by learning how to live here without messing it up. Or live anywhere in our time and space, without messing it up. Welcome to Christian Humanism, where Humanism began and inevitably will end because the Christ-Messiah is the origin of the Humanitarian Model, Aquarius, that sits in astrological symbolism in the heavens at the “right hand of God”, Saturn, the ruler of Aquarius and God Most High in the Judeo-Christian epic.

The Man with the Living Waters is the Primal Man, the First Man, and the Humanitarian Man because he has the Living Waters to give that bless and consecrate Life and the good stewardship of Life by the Anointed One. See it briefly here images as it has moved through time:

(dang! Can’t get the Egyptian baptism picture to post. Oh well. it’s in the links above that has the whole story)