tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-744657988758392973.post275546439589427323..comments2023-06-11T16:09:34.522+07:00Comments on Teetatea V: Going God's Way - The Church's Teaching on MORAL CONSCIENCETeetatea Vhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14203029592197717757noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-744657988758392973.post-47091945039129539722011-08-19T05:26:36.761+07:002011-08-19T05:26:36.761+07:00In my ebook on comparative mysticism I wrote a cha...In my ebook on comparative mysticism I wrote a chapter about morality and conscience, called “Duel of the Dual.” Here is an excerpt: <br /><br />“Conscience” is a misused and misunderstood word. “Have you no conscience?,” ask people of a person who does something which seems to them to be so obviously wrong. Each person has a dual conscience and, occasionally, these two sides do engage in a duel.<br /><br />The Penguin Dictionary of Psychology defines conscience as <i>“a reasonably coherent set of internalized moral principals that provides evaluations of right and wrong with regard to acts either performed or contemplated. Historically, theistic views aligned conscience with the voice of God and hence regarded it as innate. The contemporary view is that the prohibitions and obligations of conscience are learned…”</i> Individual moral development is based on both.<br /><br />Socrates said that conscience was the inner warning voice of God. Among Stoics it was a divine spark in man. Throughout the Middle Ages, conscience, synderesis in Greek, was universally binding rules of conduct. Religious interpretations later changed in psychiatry.<br /><br />Sigmund Freud had coined a new term for conscience; he called it “superego.” This was self-imposed standards of behavior we learned from parents and our community, rather than from a divine source. People who transgressed those rules felt guilt. Carl Jung, Freud’s famous contemporary, said that conscience was an archetype of a “collective unconscious”; content from society is learned later. Most religions still view conscience as the foundation of morality.<br /><br />Sri Aurobindo said <i>“…true original Conscience in us [is] deeper than constructed and conventional conscience of the moralist, for it is this which points always towards Truth and Right and Beauty, towards Love and Harmony and all that is a divine possibility in us.”</i> Perhaps conscience can be viewed as a double-pane window, with the self in between. On one side, it looks toward ego and free will to obey community’s laws. On the other side, it is toward the soul and divine will to follow universal law. They often converge to dictate the same, or a similar, course of conduct…and sometimes not.Ron Krumposhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05371279514024960026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-744657988758392973.post-37896797544103150722011-08-18T22:40:58.619+07:002011-08-18T22:40:58.619+07:00Conscience may be the single most misunderstood is...Conscience may be the single most misunderstood issue among Catholics nowadays. It's very true that conscience is a judgment of reason and it definitely uses the objective principles of the moral law to judge the morality of acts in specific circumstances. Conscience is NOT itself the SOURCE of the moral law. The common point of misunderstanding is that many nowadays are looking to their conscience as the source of moral principles, which is a serious ERROR. Many who reject Church teaching will say, "I'm just following my conscience." which again apparently not the case, right and wrong have basis and these are NEVER based on PERSONAL INDOCTRINATION. Crimes are not based on personal beliefs,the offense of murder does even come from religious set of norms.Teetatea Vhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14203029592197717757noreply@blogger.com