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cho_pilo
Guest
Or people who can suppress their conscience so that the death of millions would bother them less than a slight headache? Is conscience inherited or learned, or both?
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GEddie
Guest
I’d say both.
Your conscience is a faculty of your soul, like the mind or memory. As such, in a fully functional human being, there will be conscience. But just as some persons have physical conditions that deny them working eyes, nose, memory, etc, it is possible that in some human beings the conscience (or moral mind) will be in abeyance.
And even in the absence of such problems, the conscience is no more “plug and play” ready than the human mind itself. Like the mind, conscience needs to be “formed” through knowledge and experience, and if that does not happen, the moral faculty will not be fully expressed. As with everything else in our life, you need the human hardware AND the programming.
God Bless and ICXC NIKA
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kfinstad
Guest
First, the question about people being without conscience: the previous reply, (I believe.), addressed this; nonetheless, looking at it, simply in terms of the word “conscience”, and what it means, somewhat literally, it means: with knowledge. Therefore, people have a conscience; nonetheless, it may be poorly formed. Then there are circumstances in life. For instance, there is a story about an officer in Viet Nam. His unit suffered, repeatedly, devastating losses, and the likelihood of relief, from the situation, looked grim. The effect on him, as a leader, and those in the unit, began to grow toward fatigue. As an officer, he knew, that there is a right course of action, and a wrong course of action; nonetheless, the fatigue created thoughts, which seemed bound at some point, to lead to bad decisions. The losses seemed related to decisions made internally within his unit. A “Kill 'em all.” approach seemed likely. Just shy of this very real option, the unit received reinforcements, and his fatigue lifted, as did the unit’s. The point: even a well formed conscience can be broken by fatigue.
Conscience is developed through learning. Their are defects, injuries, diseases, etc., which impede a person’s ability to learn; nonetheless, as an abstraction: difference between persons, as persons, qualify each person to learn: circumstances differ. Hopefully this is not found to be redundant, but if so, I apologuise.
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Vince1022
Guest
Everyone has a conscience.
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penury
Guest
OP, great question! 
PS: I do think that one can deaden or even totally kill the conscience, first of all because the Scriptures talk about “searing” one’s conscience, and secondly, because our flesh drives are so powerful (and LOUD!) that they have a tendency to outshout and overwhelm the still, soft voice of conscience (though if one has a well-formed conscience, I think it can be quite nagging
).
See, that’s what I’ve come to conclude over the years as well, but then that makes me wonder: how much conscience is present (if it can even be quantified) at birth (as a result of all of us being created in God’s image), and how much of it is instilled? And then the next question from that is: if some kid, say, in the inner city, grows up in a fatherless family, where the “adults” around him basically do nothing to help him develop a conscience, plus model lousy behavior for him (drugs, booze, welfare chiseling, fornication, overall irresponsibility, etc.) and he also gets exposed to all kinds of mental and spiritual toxins by TV & popular “music,” then can he be held responsible for not having a conscience, and for consequently committing all kinds of crimes and immorality? (Disclaimer: I am not at all in favor of the Leftist arguments about environment being everything, so that’s not in any way lurking behind my questions here; I’m sincerely puzzled by what seems to me a huge conundrum.)
PS: I do think that one can deaden or even totally kill the conscience, first of all because the Scriptures talk about “searing” one’s conscience, and secondly, because our flesh drives are so powerful (and LOUD!) that they have a tendency to outshout and overwhelm the still, soft voice of conscience (though if one has a well-formed conscience, I think it can be quite nagging
).
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John21652
Guest
Sociopaths? Narcissists?
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GEddie
Guest
Very little in a human being is functional “at birth” other than the basic body functions of breathing, etc. At birth, most of us is in “potency” as Aquinas would have said. The neonate has eyes, but they are closed. (S)he has limbs, and a voice, but needs to learn to use them; a mind, but it needs to be filled; an emotional center and will, that need to develop. Like all these human faculties the “conscience” is present, but in abeyance, or potency, unless and until “formed.”OP, great question!
See, that’s what I’ve come to conclude over the years as well, but then that makes me wonder: how much conscience is present (if it can even be quantified) at birth (as a result of all of us being created in God’s image), and how much of it is instilled?
A person who genuinely has a malformed conscience might still be justifiably punished by the State, which is concerned only with actions; but his blameworthiness for sin would be mitigated, possibly remitted.
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However, an aspect of “conscience” although in potency at birth, resides in our naturalbodies, even without proper formation. Because we have a body, we know instinctively that it is wrong to harm another body; etc. Even someone with a malformed conscience would be responsible at this basic level.
ICXC NIKAPS: I do think that one can deaden or even totally kill the conscience, first of all because the Scriptures talk about “searing” one’s conscience, and secondly, because our flesh drives are so powerful (and LOUD!) that they have a tendency to outshout and overwhelm the still, soft voice of conscience (though if one has a well-formed conscience, I think it can be quite nagging
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John21652
Guest
And something on Narcissism with links to more information.
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Vince1022
Guest
Yes
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