Conscience Is the Voice of God within Us: A Discussion

‘Conscience is the voice of God within us’ Discuss In order to discuss whether the conscience is the result of the voice of God within us or whether in fact it is the result other environmental or biological factors we must firstly understand what a conscience is. Conscience is defined as a ‘direct intuitive awareness of right and wrong’ and therefore it is a ‘way of selecting moral ideas, resolving conflict and deciding which will work or not’. The conscience itself has three main functions, the first is that it has a decision-making function; this is seen as the most important function as it decides between right and wrong, the second is that it has a imperative functions; that is it commands and the third is that it has a reflective function; that is that it reflects on former decisions and considers the consequences of actions. However the question raised within this essay is whether our conscience comes from the voice of God within us, therefore is it acquired from God and is the result of an internal influence or is it required as a result of environmental factors, therefore is formed from an external influence whether this is from our parents or our own life experiences. Within this essay I shall discuss the theories in favour of the conscience being the voice of God within us (focussing on Butler, Augustine and Newman), and those that instead propose that it is acquired from other sources whether this is through our reason (Aquinas) or in our early childhood (psychologists approaches), in order to draw a conclusion on whether our conscience is the voice of God within us. One scholar who stated that the conscience was the voice of God speaking to us from within was St Augustine (334-430). He saw it as the law of God within our hearts, and stated that therefore it cannot be questioned and stated that it allows us to have an innate capacity to understand the difference between good or bad, right or wrong (‘men see the moral rules written in the book