"Conscience Is the Voice of God" Discuss

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“Conscience is the voice of God.” Discuss (35 marks) Most people would agree that conscience is the rational voice inside us which tells u the difference between right and wrong; it is an internal moral source which compels individuals to value judgement and morality. However, although this may be widely accepted, it does not help to conclude from where our conscience originates; whether it is innate or whether it develops throughout our lives due to environmental influences and social structuring. Usually, these altering beliefs can be categorized into the ‘religious view’ and the ‘secular view’. It also doesn’t account for how different people and cultures appear to have diverse consciences. The belief that conscience comes from God implies that it is innate: Christianity states that God is omniscient and omnipresent, and also that we are made in His image and God gave every person a conscience at conception so that they are able to make morally right decisions. Thomas Aquinas believed that conscience is not a feeling, like guilt, but the process of reasoning and he claimed that, "reason in man is rather like God in the world", which implies that he thought that practical reasoning is vital when discussing conscience. He believed that through correct rational thought processes, one can discover the primary precepts (primary moral principles), from which our consciences can discover the secondary precepts which must be applied and this is how you must act. The innate knowledge of human nature and primary precepts through practical reason is known as synderesis, which also means our innate aim and instinct to seek good and avoid evil, and deriving the secondary precepts and applying them is called conscientia. As we practice considering what others need whilst corresponding to our own needs, we develop Prudence, which is the quality of reasoning well and properly
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