Cosmic Ethics establish a set of general guidelines for us to uphold and follow in our daily lives. Our personal behaviour is or rather should be determined by these guidelines, for by agreeing to accept the new Cosmic Ethics, we are pledging ourselves to personally uphold the noble ideals and principles of the new Cosmic Ethics.
 

General Principles:

The fundamental principles of Cosmic Ethics are: (1) an empathy with all life, leading to compassion and personal honour; (2) respect for Nature, the Cosmos, and all the life-forms of Nature and the Cosmos;  (3) the truth concerning our own place, as human beings, on this planet Earth and within the cosmos itself ("the cosmic perspective"), and thus the truth about our own relation to Nature, the living beings of Nature, and to the cosmos and the living beings of the cosmos;  and (4) the truth that we, as human beings, possess the ability to consciously change ourselves for the better by using our will.

From these noble principles and ethical virtues we derive our understanding of such things as freedom, dignity and duty; that is, we acknowledge that all living beings, sentient and otherwise, have a right to be free - that we have no right, no moral justification whatsoever, for mistreating or harming other living things and depriving them of their freedom - as we acknowledge that we, as conscious beings possessed of the faculties of will, have a duty to strive to live in such a way that we: (1) do as little harm or damage as possible to our planet, to the living beings on this planet, to the Cosmos, and to the living beings of the Cosmos; and (2) are honourable and compassionate in our own lives, seeking to do what is honourable and compassionate; that is, seeking to be fair, rational, compassionate and just.

Furthermore, this freedom and this duty mean three important things. First, that we strive to restrain ourselves: that is, we accept we must strive to control our behaviour, our desires, our feelings, for such control - based upon moral guidelines - is an acknowledgement of our humanity. Second, that no one, no human being, or any living being, has a right to deprive us of our liberty or take away our honour, for these belong to us, and are inviolate. Thus, we have a natural right and duty to use physical force, and weapons, to defend ourselves and our honour, providing always that such defence is done in an honourable - a fair - way. Third, that we have the freedom to freely give our allegiance and to freely do our duty: to freely pledge ourselves to follow and be loyal to a person, the authority vested in a person, and/or an ideal or way of life; and to freely decide to accept and strive to do our duty.
 

Thus, while the Cosmic Ethic itself is a rational, reasoned, empathic, logical and noble set of principles - of guidelines for human living - and while we who accept and uphold it believe it to be a true representation of the nature of things, a true representation of the nature of life itself ("the truth"), we accept on the basis of this Ethic, that others are and must be free to decide for themselves, and free to accept or reject it. There can be no compulsion, no manipulation, just as there is no reason to accept this Ethic other than reason and empathy.
 

The Practical Consequences:
 

1) Treatment of Animals

Cosmic Ethics insists that we must show our respect for the other life with which we share this planet, and makes it clear that we, as human beings, have no more claim on this planet than any other form of life; indeed, Cosmic Ethics, makes it clear that we - because we are sentient beings possessed of the faculties of empathy and of will - have duties and responsibilities which other life do not have. We have a duty, a responsibility, to other life, and to this planet: to Nature herself. Other life on this planet is not "below us", just as  we are not superior, in any way, to other life. All living beings, here on this planet and elsewhere, are manifestations of the Cosmic Being, and thus have a "soul": a non-physical (that is, non-causal) energy which is not destroyed by the physical death of that living being since it is acausal. 

One practical consequence of this is that there really is no justification for us to breed and keep animals for slaughter, as there is no justification for us to cage animals and experiment on them in the hope of gaining "knowledge" or making "medical advances" which might help our own human species.

Thus, if it is possible and practicable for us to live without killing and eating animals, then we should do so; but if this is not possible, due to circumstances and conditions, then we must respect the animals we may have to kill, respecting and honouring them while they live, and after they are dead, for they have given up their own lives that we might continue to live. Someone who does not understand such respect for animals, and such an honouring of them, does not understand the Cosmic Ethic itself, based as this Ethic is on an understanding of how we, as human beings, are but part of the living matrix, the living being, which is Nature which itself is but one presencing, on this planet, of the Creator, the Cosmic Being.
 

2) Our Own Way of Life

Since we are duty-bound to respect other life, and indeed to strive to be compassionate toward it, we must live in such a way that we do as little harm to other life, to Nature, as possible, as we must strive to live in balance with Nature, with all other life.

In practical terms this means we must strive to live in a simple, dignified way, restraining our desire for material possessions, for wealth, and refraining from not only polluting this planet, but from exploiting it.

If such a way of life means we have to go without certain things - and forgo certain pleasures - then it must be, for the welfare of Nature is more important than our own pleasure, our own desires, our own comfort, our own convenience.

The sad truth of our times is that if things continue as they have continued for the past hundred years or so, then in a few hundred years time our planet will be overrun by human beings, many of whom, being greedy, dishonourable and pleasure-seeking, will have all but destroyed the matrix of Nature, with other living beings decimated and numerous species driven to extinction. The whole planet will be seething with pollution, on land, in the sea, in the rivers, in the air. There will then be violent, bloody, wars for decades and centuries as humans vie for resources, for food, for shelter, with tens of millions - possibly hundreds of millions - of humans dying from disease, starvation, war.

Nature may recover, thousands or tens of thousands of years later; or Nature may not recover. But the reign of civilized human beings - of civilization itself - will almost certainly be over. Instead of evolving further - of fulfilling our Destiny among the stars of the Cosmos - we will descend back into barbarism and probable extinction.

We assert that one way to avoid this is for us and others to uphold and live by the Cosmic Ethic.

In practical terms of society, the Cosmic Ethic means an end to the exploitation of both humans and this planet by abstract immoral ideas such as capitalism and International Finance. Furthermore, the Cosmic Ethic means and end to the tyranny of all presently existing societies, based as these societies are on: (1) the tyranny of a law which negates personal honour and the freedom which goes with it; (2) the tyranny of culture-destroying economics; or (3) the tyranny of a non-numinous religion which usurps and takes away the honour due to other living beings, to Nature herself.

In practical terms, the Cosmic Ethic means a non-materialistic society - a collection of communities - where people consciously restrain their greed, their desire for comfort, for wealth, for possessions, and where the welfare of Nature herself, of the land, is considered as a priority.

This means a more rural society, with no vast urban sprawls, with everything - industry and commerce included - coming second to the welfare of Nature. This means a re-orientation of our attitudes and a moving away from the tyrannical, Nature and culture destroying idea of continued "progress" and continued "economic development".

We must focus on our place in Nature, and in the Cosmos, and take the long-term view of our culture, our folk, of Nature: thinking ahead and planning for centuries, for millennia.

That is, we must understand the true meaning of our lives: as a nexus, a living link between the past of our culture, our folk, of Nature, of the Cosmos, and between the future of these things.

The Cosmic Ethic does not mean a desire to return to some non-existent rural idyllic past; rather, it means living in a moral way and also in numinous, ethical, communities based upon the understanding we have achieved by using our empathy and reason.
 
 

3) Science and Medicine
 

True, ethical, science is the study - the natural observation - of the natural world and the Cosmos. That is, it is an observing of things and beings "as those beings are" and then the use of reason to make deductions from those observations. True science is not arrogantly interventionist: it is not us trying to "play God"; that is, true science is not us trying to interfere with the living processes of Nature, of life, and trying to change them for whatever reason or reasons.

True science is moral, that is, governed by moral guidelines. As such, true science respects Nature, and the living beings of Nature, and seeks only to observe, to study, to know, to understand, what is, what exists, or lives.

It is against the Cosmic Ethic, for instance, to conduct any experiments, on any living being, however small, which means or involves the capture,  the harming or the killing of that living being. This moral principle applies absolutely; there are no exceptions.

Thus it does not matter if it is claimed that such harmful experiments - which harm or kill or which even take away the freedom of a living being - will or might produce value "scientific" or medical information, or might save some human lives or alleviate some human suffering. Such harmful experiments are simply unethical: they are immoral, and anyone who conducts or condones such experiments is being disrespectful toward Nature, toward living beings and toward the Cosmic Being. That is, such "scientists" - whatever their excuse or reason - are acting dishonourably and in a cowardly bullying way, for they lack an understanding of and respect for those living beings they experiment on, considering themselves superior to those living beings.

The truth that the Cosmic Ethic asserts is that science and medicine must be ethical, and that knowledge can and should only be obtained by ethical means.  The reasons and explanations which some scientists give for conducting and condoning unethical scientific experiments are based on the disrespectful and arrogant assumptions that: (1) we human beings are some kind of "higher life" and can thereby use and experiment on other living beings if such use and experiment can "help" us in some way; and (2) that we have some kind of "right" to know, to discover, which gives us the "authority" to harm or destroy other living things in the interest of "knowledge" or in the interests of "science".

The Cosmic Ethic asserts that given a choice between conducting a medical experiment in which living beings are harmed and killed, and not conducting that experiment, the moral thing to do is not conduct that experiment even if such an experiment might, or possibly would, help to alleviate some human suffering or cure some human disease. Knowledge can be and should be discovered, and advanced, by means which do not involve doing harm to, or killing, other living beings.