What are our life axioms?

It has been a very long time since scholars realized that in order to do any logic one must accept certain basic facts without needing to prove them. These so-called axioms or postulates were identified at least since good old Euclid (300 BC) and have been studied since. An early approach to axioms was to think of them as the basic building blocks of nature or reality, something that one could not and need not question.

A more recent realization was that we can actually question them, in the sense that if we pick different axioms we arrive at different constructs, such as non Euclidean geometry. (The trick, BTW, was in realizing that axioms do not require definitions and that when we apply certain axioms to certain suitably defined objects, we end up with "models" that make sense and are in fact useful.) However, the foundational character of axioms has not gone away.

You would think that such an important concept had been properly included in our basic educational system, that all people were familiar with it and that it would be used and considered in all aspects of life. Alas, not!

So, we end up quarreling about the "logic" of our arguments, when in fact our differences are in our axioms. Or we laugh at each other's ideas, claiming that they are obviously wrong, when the ideas are perfectly fine, if we accept their underlying axioms.

And there is the rub: are those axioms "true"? That is, do we see them holding up in reality? Are their logical consequences positive or negative? Are they observable or not? Are they consistent with other axioms used at the same time?

Too abstract? Here is an example: a beautiful article that recently appeared in The Onion.

You probably know that The Onion is a satirical online site that pokes fun at all kinds of things. So, you probably will smile at the extreme absurdity of what the "article" reports. But can you find the logical flaw in what they are proposing? I could not see any. The only reason why I find the article funny, as opposed to horrific, is that its consequences stem from a set of axioms that are totally opposite to my basic life axioms. I suspect that most people who read the article have the same reaction as mine, and yet...

And yet there are many of those same people who agree with the axioms on which the article is based. Planned Parenthood thinks nothing of participating in the destruction of millions of people, as long as they conveniently use the axiom "unborn babies are not people". Go try and prove that axiom wrong!

So, what are our REAL axioms, the ones on which we base our actions? Any thoughts?