Christians can’t claim the golden rule

RE: Christianity gave us the golden rule (May 10)

The writer asks if another correspondent “knows” that the golden rule is “founded” in Christianity. Fact check: Variants of the golden rule are found in all sorts of ancient wisdom, from Confucius (“Don’t do to others what you don’t want them to do to you” 551-470 BC) to Zoroaster (“Don’t do to others what isn’t good for you” c. 500 BC) and on and on, including the pre-Christ Old Testament books (“Love your neighbour as yourself ” Leviticus 19:18). And let’s not quibble over the wording. English didn’t even exist when the original sources emerged, but the idea behind the “rule” clearly did and it is clearly not exclusive to or founded by Christianity. Tony Carlson, Waterdown