Exercising Christian

Conscience
What is human conscience?
What conscience is not?
 Activity
I need a volunteer!
 CAPACITY TO JUDGE ONE’S
ACTION
based on class signals

relates to the basic operation of

conscience
TASKS / GOALS
e.g. to open a window

Relates to our call

• To have life to the
fullest
• To act in a truly
VOLUNTEER human way
represents every EXTERNAL SIGNALS • To love God and
human person others.
FROM THE WHOLE CLASS
Represents objective moral norms or
laws
• The volunteer represents every human
person.
• The assigned task may be related to the basic
call of every human person: to have life more
abundantly, to be more fully human, to love
God and others, or to do good.
• The capacity to make good choices represents
our freedom.
• The signals from the rest of the class
represent objective moral norms or laws that
guide or shape our true freedom.
• Lastly, the capacity to judge the good or evil
of one’s act with the help of signals from class
represents the basic operation of our
conscience, which judges every moral act we
do based on objective moral norms.
MISCONCEPTIONS
ABOUT CONSCIENCE
 Misconception 1:
Conscience is individualistic.
• This myth simply asserts that following
our conscience simply means doing
things “my way” without any real
concern for the good of others.
• This understanding of conscience
contradicts the truth that we are
persons by, with, and for others.
 Misconception 1:
Conscience is individualistic.
“What matters most is not whether what I
did was morally good or evil but that I was
personally the one who made the decision.”
Exercising Christian Conscience
“Malinis and konsensiya ko. Wala akong
pakialam sa iba.”
“It’s between me and my conscience.” (Lipio,
1998)
 Misconception 2:
Conscience is God’s voice within us.
• This myth equates our human conscience
with God’s voice commanding us what to
do.
• While our conscience is a gift from God, the
judgement of our conscience cannot be
identified with God’s voice because
sometimes our conscience can make
erroneous judgement.
 Misconception 3:
Conscience is our feeling of guilt.
• This myth equates our conscience with
the feeling guilt.
• While the operation of our conscience
can sometimes be accompanied by the
feeling of guilt, our conscience is not just
feeling but the operation of our human
reason.
 Misconception 4:
Media’s Depiction of Conscience as An External
Reality is Accurate

• This myth equates conscience to the

external advice of friend.
• Our experience of conscience, however,
points to the fact that the operation of
conscience is an internal activity for
which we are responsible.
 CONSCIENCE
It is our human capacity to use our
reason (a) to judge the moral
goodness or evil of a particular moral
act (b) with the feeling of being
morally obliged to do what is good
and avoid what is evil.
Exercising Christian
Conscience
Conscience Morally Obliges Us…