Christians Using the Conscience

Question 1

+Right and wrong

Answer 1

Conscience is the ‘reason making right decisions.’ (Thomas Aquinas)

Question 2

+Church teachings

Answer 2

Conscience is ‘the heart of the person, enjoys him at the appropriate moment to do good and avoid evil.’ (The Catechism)

Question 3

+Joseph Butler

Answer 3

The conscience is ‘our natural guide, the guide signed us by the Author of our nature.’ (Joseph Butler)

Question 4

+Specific situations

Answer 4

The conscience sometimes tells us to abandon what we’ve been taught to do in the right thing ‘Any failure to act is simply to condone evil.’ (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Question 5

-Bias

Answer 5

Aquinas’ ‘apparent goods’ which are tempted by and are lead to do the wrong thing

Question 6

-On its own

Answer 6

The Conscience should not be used by itself as it may not have been understood properly need to consult other sources when making moral decisions

Question 7

-Mistaken

Answer 7

May not be in tune, (following Freud) may have been taught to you differently, mental illness

Question 8

-Environment

Answer 8

Upbringing, taught to us, born with Id — self at basic level of physical and emotional needs, human nature