[1] Syncretism tends to facilitate coexistence and constructive interaction between different cultures (intercultural competence), a factor that has recommended it to rulers of multi-ethnic realms.
Conversely the rejection of syncretism, usually in the name of "piety" and "orthodoxy," may help to generate, bolster or authorize a sense of cultural unity in a well-defined minority or majority.
In fact, many principles, such as the Golden Rule, are present in both systems, and some religious people, as well as some Deists, prefer to adopt a rational approach to ethics.
[4] They assert that atheists are as motivated towards moral behavior as anyone, or more, citing a range of non-theistic sources of moral behavior including: parental love, their conventional (or advanced) educated upbringing, natural empathy, compassion and the humane concern; respect for social norms, criminal law stemming from natural law, police or other enforced order (and in some cases society); and a desire for a good reputation and self-esteem.
According to this view, ethical behavior is a natural consequence of altruistic motivation, not stemming from divine or tenet-prescribed system of punishment or reward in life and/or after death, though experiences and tentative expectations may instead play a role in forming and strengthening a moral atheist's motivations and ethics, united in rejection of any theory of all human beings' afterlife.
The School of Economic Science (SES) is an organisation based in Mandeville Place, London, founded by Leon MacLaren in 1937.
Although the SES has been highly criticized for its methodology and alleged motives,[6] it purports to be a syncretic school of moral philosophy.
Many Unitarian Universalists consider themselves humanists, while others hold Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, pagan, atheist, agnostic, pantheist, or other beliefs.