So what is the right thing to do?

"Do what is right" begs the above question. Here at the Church of Integrity we really appreciate this aspect of our basic statement. It forces you to think. Already we've been asked quite a few times how people are supposed to decide what the right thing to do is. The answer to those questions were perhaps a bit hidden in the original foundational post so in this post we'll focus exclusively on the answer to those questions.

First of all then the world is not simple and a simple answer like "Do what is right" obviously can not answer all your questions. One of the reasons we use it is that it forces the question in the title of this post. It makes you think and immediately engages you. We feel religion should reach out to the people and this is our way to reach out to the people and engage them in important ethical questions.

As we use it then the phrase "Do what is right" refers first of all to ethical rules that we consider universal in some sense. For example most people agree that you should not kill another human being or that you should treat others like you want them to treat you. We claim that these universal truths are a result of evolution, they are unwritten rules wired into us to help humankind survive. Our aim in the Church of Integrity is to teach those universal truths. You can consider it as teaching ethics or even teaching the best from many religions, for example there are many good things that we'll teach from Christianity.

The world is not black and white. These universal truths that I mentioned don't cover all situations. What is the right thing to do in a situation not covered by those basic ethics? We claim not to know the answer. Thinking about those situations is though the first step. The next step that we strongly recommend is to talk to others, that's why the community is so important to us. Such discussions can often lead to common ground and results that we can consider universal, sometimes they wont. In the borderline cases then people have to trust their own judgment because in the end then no one can be responsible for your choices but yourself, just make the decision that you feel conforms best to "Do what is right" and history will judge your decision. But what if you have to make an immediate decision? You don't have the time to discuss it or anything. Well first of all then learning the basic teachings of the universal truths might guide you in the right direction, we often deduce on our own results from them without even thinking about it. Also take part in discussions in the community, perhaps you'll not ever have thought about the exact decision that you face but you might be able to relate it to a problem that someone else had. This is why we emphasize that it's very good and important for our followers to take part in the discussion and help others with their problems for you can learn much from it.

We hope this clarified the foundations of the religion a bit but please comment if you have more questions on this.