The Bible’s Old Testament certainly describes in detail God’s Moral Law – the 10 commandments are at the center of this. But the idea of a Moral Law that punishes bad behavior and rewards good behavior in this life and the next is universal across cultures – this is not isolated to Christianity. This leads us to believe that God has imparted a basic understanding of morality – right and wrong – for all people. For example:
First, since the beginning of recorded history, people have believed that the soul survives death and faces moral judgment in the next life. In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the soul faces a panel of angelic judges in the next life, who interrogate the person about adherence to basic moral commands. Each person must truthfully affirm: “I have done no wrong. I have not robbed. I have not murdered. I have not told lies. I have not trespassed. I have not gossiped. I have not committed adultery.” Only the person who can truthfully pass this rigorous test will pass into heaven.
The immortality of the soul is confirmed by near-death experiences, in which consciousness continues apart from the brain. In recent years, these experiences have been documented in cultures throughout the world. Independent of religious expectations, people commonly experience separation from the body, a life review, encountering friends and relatives who have previously died, and a radiant Being of Light. (Jeffrey Long, God and the Afterlife)
Second, most cultures recognize that there is a universal moral order, binding on all people, which should affect us all in this life and in the next life. As Confucius taught, the life of the moral person is an “exemplification of the moral order,” while the life of an immoral person is a “contradiction of the moral order,” because he has “no regard for, or fear of, the moral law.” To show respect for the moral law is to understand “the law of God.” At the heart of the moral law is the law of reciprocity. “What you do not wish others to do unto you, do not do unto others,” Confucius taught.
Third, the external moral law corresponds to the internal moral impulse, at the heart of human personality. As Hume observed, the moral sentiments are “so rooted in our constitution and temper” that, absent disease or madness, “it is impossible to extirpate or destroy them.” (Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature) As Harvard Psychiatrist Kagan observed, an appreciation of good or bad “is a universal … competence that emerges early in development, like laughter or fear of strangers.” (Kagan, The Nature of the Child)
Fourth, most cultures believe that the moral law corresponds to a universal moral order, a principle of moral sowing and reaping that begins in this life and continues in the next life. The doctrine of Karma in the Buddhist and Hindu religions reflects this concept. As the Buddha taught, “Whatever karma I create, whether good or evil, that I shall inherit.” (Anguttara Nikaya)