I need help with this one about our conscience?

Question

I have pretty much chosen my path as an non-believer, I have weighed both sides of the argument but one profound thing eludes me. I have a problem with the conscience thing. We know the difference between Good and Evil. How do we know this? Are we just taught this? What is Evil anyway? I mean if you take a new born away from the rest of the world and he grows up would he be considered evil if we brought him back into today's society and he chose to kill people and eat them as a means of survival, is this evil, not to him it isn't.

Answer 1

Evil is called evil because it is considered as the enemy of God. Christians believe in the Holy Spirit, who convicts them of sin. This is different from the conscience. A person can have conscience even if he does not believe in God. On the other hand, he needs to believe and accept God if he wants the Holy Spirit to "indwell" him. The dictate of conscience depends on several things which influenced his growing up years, like his parents and/or environment. Some have little conscience, others have a big conscience. This is based on how much knowledge we were taught about what we should/should not do. It is teacheable.
If, perchance, this person suddenly feels or knows that it is wrong to eat human flesh even without anybody telling him, then that is the Holy Spirit convicting him of sin. The Spirit teaches us and makes God known to us.

Answer 2

God gave you a choice, to believe with all of your heart, or to not believe at all. There is no in between. Your conscience is your own to have to deal with.

A good person isn't just religious and not just a believer. A good person can be with or without religion as long as they obey the laws of human nature. Don't kill people and eat them. It's all in the raising of a child. You do the best to can to teach me right from wrong.

It's only when we let our lives get set in the mortar of the things that are negative and create a dark shadow that follows us. Like a bad karma. Even though I'm a devout Christian, I do believe in that...or 'whatever goes around, comes around.' You don't need a religious position for that. You just need to use common sense about how to live your life. Think first before making your move because if it's a bad thing, then it will eventually come back at you 100 fold. That's the natural order of things in the entire universe.

So, good/bad, right/wrong, it's all the same alphabet soup. Religion without faith is wrong as well. It's hypocritical, so you'd be better off without religion and just try to live your life in a non-negative way. Even the witches know the consequences of casting spells. If you do it wrong...you get it back 3 X 3. That's a universal belief.

Answer 3

You cannot understand the God because you are not called by God to serve him. We live in a world of many choices and you cannot and will not serve God unless he calls you. Matthew 20:16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
Now consider the animals, your dog, fish, cat, horse, or whatever animal you may have. You love them and they love you.Consider how is there death any different than your life stopping, OK maybe not the fish. But they do not worry about life or death, they just live same as you and when they die? Nothing just like you. But you are concerned because you are conscience of things outside your existence. Maybe you believe in evil,love,peace,hatred,cruelty,joy, these all come from a spiritual source and you have 5 ways to contact the spirit realm just like the 5 ways to contact the natural world(see hear taste touch & hear). These 5 ways are; memory, affections, reason, conscience, and imagination and these are how you contact the spirit world. Your problem as with most all of mankinds problem is one and the same--- you are clouded to your third diminsion by Satan--- as we all are from our birth.2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
We all do come into the world believing not!
Now you maybe asking yourself what is this third deminsion?
This is the Throne of your heart--- some people call this free will and others would say there is no such thing?
What this is though is a throne room only God has access to and if you do not let him in then Satan or evil was your ruler, and even though you never did any evil in your life Satan still is your ruler because of your birth. Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Now if you do not like God and Satan I can give you two other words that mean exactly the same thing as God and Satan which are Faith and unbelief. Now faith alone is also no use to God unless you do something for God with your faith that is for others benefit and not your own.
If my words intest you to know more e-mail me and ask! my name here is my e-mail at yahoo

Answer 4

Perhaps evil is best represented in the human situation in the form of unprovoked hatred against and coupled with an aggressive impulse to cause harm to another person or group. Such hatred can be aroused from within the individual or group through jealousy, wrong teachings or due to unexplained extra-personal forces.
Less than 150 years ago the United States of America, Great Britain, and many other countries practiced brutal slavery of the African race that lasted for over 400 years. The Nazis, during World War II, found genocide acceptable, as did the Imperial Japanese Army with the Nanking Massacre. Today, there is strong disagreement as to whether homosexuality and abortion are perfectly acceptable or evils. Therefore universalists consider evil independent of culture, and wholly related to acts or intents. Thus while the ideological leaders of Nazism accepted (and considered it good) to commit genocide, the universally evil act of genocide renders the entire ideology or culture evil.

Answer 5

Standards of good and evil have been iconized into social acceptance with definitive examples of both. Religious beliefs aside, you KNOW differences between good and evil--having to choose between being either law abident or law defiant.

Measures of the latter doesn't necessairily make one "evil", by the way......

It is interesting to note society cares less the degrees of lessons on behavioral ethics are taught to a child--regardless of the enviroment one is reared into adulthood; society only is concerned when a person VIOLATES the established standards of civilized society.

Answer 6

It's the way we grow up. There are certain things, Archtypes, are found in every society. It's part instinct, part rearing. How do newly hatched sea turtles know to crawl like hell to get to the ocean? It's just in there. In every culture, there are stories about "A flood" or something similar, or that have "one head-hancho god".

Part is rearing. For example, children who are abused during childhood and adolescene are more likely to be abusive when they grow up. It's all they know. So, evil is partly determined by society, and is filtered through by parents (who, in theory, are supposed to follow societies rules). But it's partly instincitve. We should have empathy for others. Like girls who say "awwww" when they see a kitty. It's their "small, defenseless animal" gene kickin in.

hope this helps.

p.s-I'm an athiest too. Good luck.

Answer 7

Killing and eating other people would be evil in today's society because it is no longer required as a means of survival. Taking any life form for no reason is and always will be evil.

Answer 8

There are no good or bad choices in life, only different ones.

That's from "A Great and Terrible Beauty." Wonderful book. There is really no way to tell if we're right or not. But doing "good" things for others makes you feel happy, and doing "bad" things doesn't.

And that sort of thing happens. The suicide bombers have been taught from birth that killing themselves for God is the right thing to do. That killing the infidels is what is good, and what the enemy is working for is evil.

Answer 9

Good and evil are abstract terms, used to define the ideas of civilization and society. You're right, someone who was raised in a cannabalistic society is acting in a way that they see as "good".

Your conscience is not only an extension of your society, but your own personal code of honor (right and wrong).

Answer 10

Instinct tells you to kill or be killed, conscience makes you hesitate.

The ten commandments oppose every natural animal instinct that should still exist if evolution worked the way it's supposed to work.

Animals aren't evil, only humans can be. "Evil" is using the fear of pain and death as a means to gain personal power and wealth. Overcoming the fear of death to save another is considered the greatest good.