Do all Men have a Conscience?

Imagine you're in a playground with your family. The younger ones are running around, when

all of a sudden a man comes in, chooses a child at random, and hits the child with all of his strength.

Now Forgive me for making you imagine such an obviously terrible story, but that was the

point. Any sane person can tell that what the man in that story did is wrong. Christian, or not, you

know this action is wrong. How do we know this? From our conscience.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines one's Conscience as “A person's moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to one's behavior.”

Conscience is big in our society. It is what laws are based off of, it is how we judge the average person, it is even highly influential in product advertising. But where does this conscience come from?

Today's scientists say that our conscience is just like our ability to talk or to do math, something we learn from others. They state that our conscience is not something we are born with. But is this really true? It's not. And I'm going to show you why.

One piece of evidence that conscience is not simply learned behavior is that many cultures have similar ideas of right and wrong, and systems of punishment. Most of these civilizations agreed that murder, stealing, often adultery, and even lying was wrong. Something inside us from birth always comes to very similar conclusions on right and wrong. This doesn't sound like something we simply learn from others. This doesn't add up with what society is telling us today.

Another, more scientific point of evidence pointing away from the society's views on conscience is that animals do not have a conscience. While some creatures, many in fact, show caring for others, especially their mates, this is still different from conscience, it is simply a symbiotic relationship. For example, you are more likely to protect your mother or best friend in a dangerous situation that a random person on the street. Why? Well not just because of your conscience. You see your mother or your best friend benefits you. The reason you want to care for the people close to you is not wrong, but it does not come from your conscience, it comes from your own self interest. That is how it is with animals. They do not posses the basic conscience to treat random other animals with any sort of second level caring. It is almost always out of self interest. You'll never see an animal picking up something another creature dropped and handing it to them, or holding back a leaf so others can come through without pushing it aside themselves. Conscience is unique to mankind.

So if our conscience is not something we learn or gain, how do we get it? God. Being made in God's image means we inherit some of his attributes. These include creativity, love, caring, the crave to be a leader, and even the craving to do the right thing verses the wrong. God gave us a built in moral compass that points towards what the right thing to do. Going against what your conscience is telling you to do is always wrong. James 4:17 reads “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn't do it, it is sin for them.”

God built into every one of us this amazing tool that literally tells us what God wants us to do! When you accept Christ and let the Holy Spirit into you, it is even more pronounced. Without the Holy Spirit, our conscience can be suppressed. You can teach yourself not to listen to it. It's like the parable of the two wolves: In the parable a man tells a boy that there are two very strong wolves fighting inside us. One of them is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego. The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This wolf is your conscience. The boy asks which wolf will win, and the man replies with “The one you feed.”

So remember to listen to your conscience, to feed it, and to do so with humility else it will be suppressed. You are not above what God want's you to do. There is a proverbial scale in each of our minds, and it should always weigh heavy on the side of God. In closing I want to read Galatians 6:9 which reads “let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”