Think about our early ancestors who lived before the development of agriculture. They are thought to have existed as isolated bands of related people, roaming their lands taking advantage of what resources became available and making the tools and weapons needed for their survival. Life would have been shaped by behaviours which had evolved over millennia and customs which had been developed to suit the circumstances including occasional interactions with other groups. There may have been spiritual beliefs associated with the seasons and the phases of the moon, but we will never be aware of them. All we can say is that their rules would have been developed to match what they valued and to fit their circumstances.

And this process of developing behaviours, customs and rules to suit current circumstances has continued throughout history. Even the rules and strictures inherent to faiths and beliefs, supposedly handed  down by ‘God’, were ‘revealed’ (ie created) by religious leaders to suit the current circumstances. All rules and regulations. ethics and morals are man made. There are no universal laws, only behaviours and restrictions which are approved of by those who need them to live safe and predictable lives. Furthermore, no set of rules can be ‘more true’ than any other, only more or less appropriate to the circumstances.

Unfortunately, in these times, because of the regular movements of people around the world, various sets of rules which were originally developed to meet local circumstances, and therefore often differ widely, meet and clash. Contradictions between moral, ethical and legal systems continue unresolved because they are often associated with particular religious or nationalistic beliefs. The most that has been achieved is a set of common values – The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A better solution would be for all of us to accept that rules and regulations are human in origin and then formulate a new set to resolve the current problems of the world – refugees, disparity in wealth, religious conflicts, racial disharmony, global warming and extinction of species. We surely need to create new rules and behaviours to suit us, now.