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The moral realists, on the other hand, point to natural criteria that can prove the existence of moral rules that govern humans—such as the prohibition against murder. These criteria can be based in group happiness (in the case of utilitarianism) or in absolute duty that is grounded in reason or the nature of human action (in the case of deontology). The swing theories (virtue ethics and ethical intuitionism) require direct connection to a source of what is (such as God or Truth) to validate the virtue or the intuition. Without this connection to such a source, virtue ethics and ethical intuitionism revert to anti-realism.¹⁷

Sometimes the moral and the non-moral become confused. In these situations, one must refer back to the personal worldview imperative¹⁸ and the relevant theory of ethics that have been embraced in order to separate an ethical from a non-ethical practice.¹⁹ It is easy to be prejudicial against what is new or unfamiliar. When the unfamiliar is merely different and non-ethical, then the common body of knowledge must expand to accommodate it (legitimate cultural relativism). When the unfamiliar is immoral, then the common body of knowledge should give direction for the proper way to exclude such an input to the community (for example, Charles Manson’s killing cult).