C.S. Lewis?

Question

As the great C.S. Lewis once wrote "if God wasnt real how would we tell the difference from right and wrong, evil and good?" He raises a good point here. How would be able to have a conscience?

That feeling that we recieve when we do something we know is wrong, like stealing from someone or killing someone, how would we know that that is truly bad without the presence of God? Science or nothing else can explain this. You cannot just say "well we would just know" because that does not make sense.

From a scientific standpoint can someone explain this?

What about from a different standpoint?

If they evolved to be so, which some of you are saying they did, then what about the people that were before the evolution?

And you can't say it was how we were raised because that would be saying the first person to ever exist did not know what was right and what was wrong?

There are things most people see no harm done to them but still think is wrong ie abortion or drugs, but yet some people still find their conscience tugging at them

Answer 1

The Greek word translated CONSCIENCE in the New Testament literally means - 'knowing together with'. It refers to an independent witness to our actions-like a personal ombadsman. The laws or standards of God are stamped on our constitution, and the faculty of conscience stands alongside, operating like a policeman or magistrate.

Where in the body is the conscience situated? If a pathologist wanted to locate it in a corpse, where would he find it? We cannot answer such a question, but the fact that it cannot be seen does not lead us to doubt its existence. We know it's there because we have often felt its operation.

We can silence the conscience by steamrolling it.
Self justifying arguments
Diversionary tactics
Reprogramming the conscience.

However, our conscience affects our character, and the conscience can only be at peace when its claims and charges are met, and its debts paid in full. It tells me that I have sinned against God, it points out all my pride, selfishness, dishonesty, greed, unbelief, meanness, hostility, and so much more.

How can I escape the remorse of all that I have done in my life?
The answer is through Jesus Christ, for He came into the world to take the punishment due to me for my sins. He came to die in the place of all those who seek forgiveness.

This is the glorious relief and cleansing which comes when we believe that Christ's death has cancelled all the charges of sin which stand against us.
Wesley sung:
He breaks the power of cancelled sin
He sets the prisoner free
His blood can make the foulest clean
His blood avails for me.

When we know that God has forgiven us, then the conscience is at rest. The forgiveness of Almighty God is the most amazing benefit that can be imagined.

Answer 2

We evolved with an instinct for empathy and altruism.

The combined logical analysis of these two instincts is the Golden Rule: Do to other what is desired for one's self.

The fact that psychopaths, who lack empathy, and sociopaths, who lack altruism, both exist is disproof that all humans have a conscience. Some simply do not. And pity the monsters among us who have neither empathy nor altruism, and live completely alone surrounded by 6 billion fellow humans.

No deity is required. Morality amongst social animals is evolutionarily advantageous.

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Ethics (empathy and altruism) evolved before humanity did.

Your question about 'people before evolution' proves you have no clue how Evolution works.

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The fact that ethics involve caring about things that do not directly affect us falls under empathy -- that's almost as good a definition as I can think of for empty, even.

The fact we arrive at different conclusions on complex topics is proof that the conscience is not a universal thing, as one would expect a divinely given conscience to be.

Answer 3

Think about it as survival and society.

A community (a group of individuals who work together) has a significantly greater chance of survival compared to an individual.

Anything that promotes group cohesion and cooperation will further increase the chances of survival of the entire group.

Emotions such as love, empathy, and compassion which evolved along with our species has helped promote this group stability.

Herego morality and conscience are a product of evolution for the "goal" of developing a stronger group bonds which helps ensure your survival as an individual in a community.

Answer 4

Biological evolution, societal influences, and personal preferences...

It's a great question that deserves volumes written about it...

edit: I'm not sure how you are thinking about evolution, but it is an extremely slow process. There was no "first person." It's like trying to pinpoint when Summer became Winter.

Most likely, animals once relied solely on instincts. Eat, drink, sleep, have sex. Then society was developed once these animals had the capacity to improve upon instincts. They began to teach their offspring where to eat, when to sleep, etc...Eventually, this became so finely tuned, we called it culture, and it is a large part of our morality.

Answer 5

How about a logical standpoint?

I like it when someone does Y to me, so I'll do it for someone else so they'll be more likely to do Y for me in the future. That way everyone's doing Y and the world is great.

If someone does X to me, I don't like it. I won't do X to someone else because of how it made me feel, and I don't want someone else to feel that way, because it'll put them in a bad mood and they'll be less likely to do Y.

From here, you have the beginning of a universal code of ethics (despite all of religion's supposed moral authority, they have not produced anything close to secular humanist ethics, which enshrines the religious freedom lacking from most religions).

Easy.

Answer 6

Ahh, but you forget that humans have evolved minds, and can in fact philosiphize about right and wrong. Over years we can see good and bad, and create judgement and impart ethics on our society. . Don't believe me? Why do we have terrorists in the world? Why would someone blow themselves up to kill in the name of God? Or, look at Japan at the end of WWII, when children were taught to crawl under vehicles with bombs strapped to themselves, explain Kamakaze pilots? These people all did, or were willing to do what they thought was ethically and morally right (in fact, an obligation to fullfill Gods wishes).

Society creates laws and ethics, parents teach these ethics to their children. Your evil is not necessarily your neighbors evil.

Answer 7

I think there are also other religions that say what is right and wrong. For example, in the Wiccan rede it says, "'An it harm none, do what ye will'. This is usually interpreted as a declaration of the freedom to act, along with the necessity of taking responsibility for what follows from one's actions.

In other words, if what you do harms none, then do what you will.

Answer 8

This question scares me. It honestly frightens me that some people need to believe in invisible sky faeries to be able to tell the difference between right and wrong.

Are you familiar with the concept of a meme?

The reason that morals are generally universal throughout all of human culture is that moral ideals that are destructive and overly selfish will destroy a culture. This is why compassion and altruistic ideals are somewhat better, because they improve and strengthen the culture.

Logical thought and empathy are all that one needs to behave ethically. I don't want my possessions to be stolen from me. I don't want the possessions of the people around me to be stolen. I don't want to steal things because I have empathy for the person that I steal from. Stealing is therefore wrong. Empathy is the application of logic from your experience to the logic of someone else's.

Logic is all that is required. Not sky faeries. End.

Answer 9

It isn't God that teaches us our moral code. It is formed by experience, especially parental moral examples, and the slow growth via cognition of a set of conditionings, inhibitions, and concepts of beauty through our entire lifetime.

Moral codes are also founded on emotional instincts and intuitions that were naturally selected in the past because they aided survival and reproduction, and that they still generally prescribe behavior that enhances individual fitness and/or group well-being.

Answer 10

He once wrote something like:

if God does not exist and everything happened by accident then my brain is not really made for thinking and is just a byproduct of some atoms, therefore my thoughts cannot be trusted, and if my thoughts cannot be trusted then i can't use them to not believe in God.

that was my own paraphrase, but it is close