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bibleguy180
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Why would God give us each a conscience capable of determining right from wrong if we are expected to blindly follow all the teachings of the Church? Doesn’t make sense to me.
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In_Spiration
Guest
For one, because the Church merely helps form the principles of your fallible conscience; it doesn’t tell you precisely what to do in every conceivable scenario. For instance, no Catholic doctrine specifically mentions what a man should do when faced with the moral dilemma of whether he should post a ridiculously uninformed, theologically confused, probably biased, and/or falsely loaded question in a message board, or to instead refrain from such childish activity.
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stephe1987
Guest
Actually, we are not supposed to “blindly” follow the teachings of anyone or anything. We are supposed to question our faith, and in doing so, our faith becomes stronger as we learn the reasons WHY the Church teaches the way it does.
Believe it or not, the Church does not “blindly” make up doctrines and expect people to follow them just because the Church said so. There are reasonings behind everything.
If you have specific questions about a specific Church doctrine, a good place to start is the Search Box on the “Faith” tab of this site.
Believe it or not, the Church does not “blindly” make up doctrines and expect people to follow them just because the Church said so. There are reasonings behind everything.
If you have specific questions about a specific Church doctrine, a good place to start is the Search Box on the “Faith” tab of this site.
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In_Spiration
Guest
I’m sorry for the harsh reply before, bibleguy. I’ve just seen a post from you in another thread, in which you at least profess that the Catholic Church is the one true Church, so your question was probably not maliciously intended or asked with ulterior motives. I suppose you have genuine curiosity and are interested in a fruitful discussion, despite your dangerously misguided comprehension of Catholic dogma. (Honestly, your question seemed like it must have come from an anti-Catholic who only knows as much about authoritative Church teaching as his pastor’s stock “Papist bashing” allows.) My bad.
As for the question…
You will always be the one who forms your conscience and its principles. You may insist on deriving all the important ones autonomously, strictly from your intuition and natural reason, or you may blindly adopt just the somewhat broader ones that the Church declares are binding, or, if you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you may attempt to harmonize the two into a comprehensive and particularly applicable set that you even understand. If hypothetically you ever had to choose between your own autonomy or the Church, then, well, I’d hope you choose the more humble route.
As for the question…
You will always be the one who forms your conscience and its principles. You may insist on deriving all the important ones autonomously, strictly from your intuition and natural reason, or you may blindly adopt just the somewhat broader ones that the Church declares are binding, or, if you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you may attempt to harmonize the two into a comprehensive and particularly applicable set that you even understand. If hypothetically you ever had to choose between your own autonomy or the Church, then, well, I’d hope you choose the more humble route.
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inocente
Guest
Some posters on other threads have implied that they always blindly follow the Church without the slightest attempt to reconcile Church teaching with their conscience. Others have implied that they go so far as to follow the Church even when its teaching conflicts directly with their conscience.
The question is then why would God give them a conscience in the first place.
I’m not making any point at all here, just saying what I think the OP is getting at.
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