Karen Armstrong Let's revive the Golden Rule

But before we start we set this golden rule.

The golden rule is great. I'm a big supporter of both.

None of us really extends the golden rule in truly diffuse and universal fashion.

And of course it's not just religious people who believe in the Golden Rule.

The deployment of the golden rule most naturally happens along these non zero sum channels.

So, it's these exclusions to the golden rule that amount to a lot of the world's trouble.

Every single one of them has evolved their own version of what's been called the Golden Rule.

I would just sum up the way things look, at least from this secular perspective, as far as compassion and the golden rule go, by saying that it's good news that compassion and the golden rule are in some sense built into human nature.

So, that's good news. Now, if you've been paying attention, you're probably anticipating that there's bad news here we still aren't to universal love, and it's true because, although an appreciation of the golden rule is natural, it's also natural to carve out exceptions to the golden rule.

I'm going to try to give you a little bit of a natural history of compassion and the golden rule.

I'm going to argue tonight that compassion and the golden rule are, in a certain sense, built into human nature.

I'm going to talk about compassion and the golden rule from a secular perspective and even from a kind of scientific perspective.

And the problem is that although in the case of sending people to prison, you have this impartial judiciary determining who gets excluded from the golden rule that in everyday life, the way we all make these decisions about who we're not going to extend the golden rule to, is we use a much rougher and readier formula.

So, kind of webs of non zero sumness are where you would expect compassion and the golden rule to kind of work their magic.

So, the fact that the golden rule is in some sense built in to us is not, by itself, going to bring us universal love.

This Norman Rockwell painting is called The Golden Rule, and we heard about this from Karen Armstrong, of course, as the foundation of so many religions.

And it was the Golden Rule would bring them to the transcendent value that he called ren, human heartedness, which was a transcendent experience in itself.

He said, In your exegesis, you must make it clear that every single verse of the Torah is a commentary, a gloss upon the Golden Rule.

Golden Slumbers

And in particular, every single one of the major world traditions has highlighted has said and put at the core of their tradition what's become known as the Golden Rule.

And I think it's great that the leaders of the religions of the world are affirming compassion and the golden rule as fundamental principles that are integral to their faiths.

Silence is golden.

But people want to be religious, and religion should be made to be a force for harmony in the world, which it can and should be because of the Golden Rule.

They're like Golden Retrievers.

Cartography s New Golden Age

Industrialization s Second Golden Age

So like golden camels.

So like golden camels.

a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, around the hem of the robe.

a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, around the hem of the robe.

We want this golden world.

Golden Rules for the Eurozone

sparks like to golden herds.

sparks like to golden herds.

Basically it's just like, if you're my enemy, if you're my rival if you're not my friend, if you're not in my family I'm much less inclined to apply the golden rule to you.

The NGO representative spoke of peace and talked about perusing global partnerships, freedom and equality by achieving sisterhood and brotherhood and living by the golden rule with love for each other as for ourselves.

A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about.

A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about.

But I'm also going to argue that once you understand the sense in which they are built into human nature, you realize that just affirming compassion, and affirming the golden rule, is really not enough.

So, welcome to the Golden Desert.

I call it the golden circle.

Silver Linings for a Golden Age

This is a golden coral, a bush.

Speech is silver, but silence is golden.