For you, which is stronger?

Question

Your desire or your conscience? Like if, lets say...you were addicted to cigars, would your conscience win, if you told yourself, it can kill you if you continue? but your desire is there for it.

Mike, i'll have to agree 100%

Answer 1

It’s all DESIRE buddy, 24/7 – 365.

Conscience cannot be ‘stronger’ than Desire, because Conscience is the servant of Desire.

We consider the ‘pros and cons’ of everything.
The ‘pro’ is the pleasure something will give us. E.g. the sweet taste of chocolate cake.
The ‘con’ is the pleasure something will take away. I.e. the cake will make us fat and unattractive.

Now the ‘science’ of evaluating the ‘con’ is the con-science. But it’s not ‘Conscience vs. Desire’ it’s 'Conscience evaluating Desire'.

I don’t smoke cigars anymore because my desire for longer life and health exceeds my desire for a good nicotine buzz.

Answer 2

Well there's more to smoking than desire, there's a physical and psychological addiction as well. But as I don't smoke, that's not too relevant.

My conscience is there to prevent me from doing anything that might cause harm to others. My desire and conscience only come into conflict on rare occasions, because it's seldom that I desire something that would go against my conscience. So perhaps you could say that my conscience is, usually, stronger.

Answer 3

maybe in that instance, it's not that one is stronger than the other, period. I think every temptation weighs in, and it's more like a different likert scale for each one.... how far will you go to get what you desire against your better judgement on issue X?

smoke none
smoke 5 years
smoke 10 years
smoke 20 years
smoke until it kills me.

Or, if you have other desires, like eating food that's bad for you but tastes good. How much do you eat?

none; it's bad for me!
I'll eat it until I'm 10 pounds overweight or weigh X
I'll eat it utnil I'm 20 pounds overweight or weigh y
I'll eat it until I'm 50 pounds overweight or weigh z
screw it, I can't stop eating those Big Macs... I don't care if they kill me!

how about this, though, as a good philosophical next step question:
what helps us make those kinds of decisions on an individual basis? If you're a behaviorist like me, you'd believe it's the experiences we've had -the environment in which we exist. For example, if you know more fat people, you are more likely to accept a further plot down the likert scale, accepting more weight gain without a change in diet. What do you think of that? Can you see cultures, groups in society, etc where that might be considered true for being overweight? What about other issues like, say, people with tattoos. Are those who hang out with people who have tattoos more likely to have tattoos themselves? I think it's an astounding yes.

later gator,
Mike in Raleigh

Answer 4

if we are talking about something that could shorten my life such as cigarettes, etc. i would say my conscience is def stronger as i can weigh the pros and cons and have incredibly strong discipline and will. However, if it is whether I should take a trip with girlfriends for the week-end or put that money in the bank, I would pack a bag!

Answer 5

I think that my conscience would kick in if it was life threatening but desire would make it hard

Answer 6

Self-discipline will kill some habits but to truly be free from the things we are enslaved to, it takes an outside force.

I guess to answer the question I would have to say: Without the help of God, I would be trapped in all kinds of things that weren't good for me.

Answer 7

I would say my desire which is not good. I always seem to give in to buying something or doing something when I know the outcome and do it anyways. Regardless of consequence.

Answer 8

my conscience
researching the cons to several issues have really made me more aware and i actually have motivation to reject many things, like eating chips
but temptation is a mother

i think if we researched more people would see how bad some things may be and get grossed out and stop

Answer 9

desire.-temtation will always win.666