‘Conscience Is the Voice of God’ Discuss.

Coming from the point where humans were created in God’s image, it follows that they have the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. From the rules of conduct given to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to the Ten Commandments given to the Israelites, we see that God throughout history has prescribed what is considered right and what is wrong. Jesus summarized these commandments as loving God and loving our neighbors in Matthew 22:37- 40. Similarly, the fact that we were created in God’s image means that we have an inner ability to know what is wrong and right – conscience (Romans 2:15).

What is morality? Where does our sense of morality come from and why is it important for us to know? The cognitive scientist, psychologist, linguist, and scholar, Steven Pinker discusses this in his essay, “The Moral Instinct”. In this essay, Pinker claims that our morality sense is innate, it constantly changes, and it is universal among each culture. Pinker also explains that moral sense shapes our judgement as it is something that we value and seek in other people. The science of the moral sense is important since it shows how morality impacts our actions and it explains why we act in certain ways.

To the common man, conscience meant listening to their moral code to make day-by-day decisions that would not harm another person. To Harriet, conscience meant standing up against awful people to

Each person is in control of their actions in life. Although conscience may make each individuals actions seem honorable, the truth is they might be.

These individuals are known to be experts of morality. The chapter proposes two reasons as to why these individuals are called upon so frequently. One, for those who believe and have some sort of religious back round, and second, for those who believe in what is called a “scientific view” of the world. This chapter presents the idea that there is some popular belief that religion and morality go hand in hand and that in order to understand morality, you must understand religion. It is explained that when we view morality from a religious perspective, we give meaning to morality in a way that a “good man” made this world that we currently live in and that we are his children. While the book proposes the question that people who believe in God, or a higher power, base their values on what those religions state is right or wrong, whereas for an atheist the question still remains; how do these individuals weigh their moral compass and place their values?

While some the Conscience clause protects ethical and moral views, it can cause a negative impact on the other end of the spectrum. One of

Humans have their moral compasses to guide them throughout life. In what we have learned every essential character or important lesson learned is because of that moral compass or conscience. With good or bad things in these lessons conscience is to blame for the overall positive effect. Ethically, conscience helps determine right from wrong. The quote “Conscience is the perfect interpreter of life,” by Karl Barth relates to Johnny Elie and Dove.

We know what is right not by choice but by design, we have a conscience to do right.

“Fear is only as deep as the mind allows” (Japanese Proverb). Fear does not exist. It is a state of mind. In which our minds control our fears. Just as fear, our mind also controls our conscience. Both either lead you to doing the right thing or both will lead you to do what is wrong. The Crucible successfully demonstrates that there are characters whose fear paralyzes them from doing what is right and characters who follow their conscience, rather than following society.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines conscience as, “ a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed” (CCC, 1778). There are other dictionary definitions of conscience, but they do not take Catholic morals into consideration. While conscience can be affected by many deteriorating factors like peer pressure, the Catholic Church provides methods on how a conscience should act. There are many examples of ethical problems people face in their everyday lives, and techniques like the SEER method help them get through those moral dilemmas. There are many things people assume a conscience is and is not. The Catholic

In his second essay of the Geneaology of Morals, Nietzsche attempts to identify and explain the origin of the conscience. He does not adopt the view of the conscience that is accepted by the “English Psychologists”, such as Bentham, J. Mill, J.S. Mill and Hume, as the result of an innate moral feeling. Rather, it is his belief that the moral content of our conscience is formed during childhood under the influence of society. Nietzsche defines the conscience as an introspective phenomenon brought about by a feeling of responsibility, in which one analyzes their own morality due to the internalization of the values of society. This definition holds the position that the conscience is not something innate to

Conscience, as defined by the Merriam – Webster Dictionary, is “the part of the mind that makes you aware of your actions as being either morally right or wrong”. It’s that tiny voice inside your head that tells you if what you’re about to do, what you’re doing or what you’ve done is essentially right or not. A lot of people nowadays tend to ignore this for fear of being ridiculed or judged by other people, even if what they did was actually right.

Man’s development of “bad conscience” is a complicated process that sees its beginnings in slave morality’s doubling of the doer and the deed. According to Nietzsche, the slave (the weaker man) had developed ressentiment towards the noble (the stronger man), labeling the noble as evil and blaming him for slave’s suffering (20-22). The slave separated the noble (the doer) from his instinctive actions (the deeds) and claimed the noble possessed “free will;” the slave believed “the strong are free to be weak” (26). The slave set up the ideal of his own weak and passive instincts being “good” and the strong and active instincts of the nobles being “evil” (26-27). As stated by JHarden, when defining his weakness as good, “the slave turned [his] natural condition of suffering at the hands of others into a condition which should be desired” (JHarden). As religions developed, and the slave morality became dominant, this ideal of good and evil prevailed and forced man to become conscious of his instincts as separate from himself, something he could control.

Conscience, in modern usage, term denoting various factors in moral experience. Thus, the recognition and acceptance of a principle of conduct as binding is called conscience. In theology and ethics, the term refers to the inner sense of right and wrong in moral choices, as well as to the satisfaction that follows action regarded as right and the dissatisfaction and remorse resulting from conduct that is considered wrong. In earlier ethical theories, conscience was regarded as a separate faculty of the mind having moral jurisdiction, either absolute or as a representative of God in the human soul.

On the other hand, Freud is more concerned with instilling the idea that infancy and childhood is a key role in development, he states, “by the time the child's intellect awakens, the doctrines of religion have already become unassailable,” suggesting that religion is a force that shapes civilization in which people function, as well as form our judgment of human civilization. Hence, the importance of developing successfully as opposed to failing to function in society, whether they are religious or not. Instead, he dubs man as “a creature of weak intelligence who is ruled by his instinctual wishes.”