Can man really know of right and wrong with natural reasoning?

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Mike5575

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I have been reading about Western Civilization, and I find it interesting that marriages where arranged in all of the major cultures within Western Civ. It was not until Carolingian times when the Catholic Church stipulated that a girl over fifteen must give her consent or the marriage would not be valid in the eyes of the church.

Also, Ancient Romans practiced infanticide to limit their population. The Church condemned infanticide, and clergy discouraged such practices by urging people to abandon unwanted children in Churches.

No one, I mean no one ever thinks that going against one’s conscience is the morally right thing to do. Why then, had it not occurred to anyone that arranged marriages are bad, or that killing young babies, because they look to weak or sickly is a terrible thing to?

Could it be that when people make moral choices, those moral attitudes have already been engrained into Western Civilization for several centuries, and we just take it for granted?

Thoughts?
 
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church man has a innate conscience:

1776 “Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment… For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God… His conscience is man’s most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths.”

1777 Moral conscience, present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil.It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

1778 Conscience is 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. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law:
 
Mike5575 said:
I have been reading about Western Civilization, and I find it interesting that marriages where arranged in all of the major cultures within Western Civ. It was not until Carolingian times when the Catholic Church stipulated that a girl over fifteen must give her consent or the marriage would not be valid in the eyes of the church.

Also, Ancient Romans practiced infanticide to limit their population. The Church condemned infanticide, and clergy discouraged such practices by urging people to abandon unwanted children in Churches.

No one, I mean no one ever thinks that going against one’s conscience is the morally right thing to do. Why then, had it not occurred to anyone that arranged marriages are bad, or that killing young babies, because they look to weak or sickly is a terrible thing to?

Could it be that when people make moral choices, those moral attitudes have already been engrained into Western Civilization for several centuries, and we just take it for granted?

Thoughts?
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Yes, I would agree.
Old times were not like ours.
Just think of crucifixon and you will understand the rest…
 
We have a certain inborn sense of right and wrong because we are created in the image and likeness of God. But we also have the effects of original sin which incline us towards temptation.

I think that people are often willing to do things that they are culturally pressured to classify as OK, even though they deep inside know it is wrong. I think abortion is like this today, I think ignoring the plight of Jews was like that in Nazi Germany, I think human sacrifice was like that for the Aztecs and infanticide for Romans. People are capable of appalling things, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know it is wrong somewhere deep inside.

Evil is often more an outcome of weakness than malice.
 
Yes, people have an intrinsic sense of right and wrong placed by God.

Romans 2:14 For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

Those who have never heard the gospel will be judged by God according to whether they followed their conscience.
 
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