ch. 5 Formation of conscience

our conscience is our ____

most immediate authority

What is the seven step process?

1. self examination 2. education 3. seek objective truth 4. understand church teachings 5. WWJD 6. expert advice 7. prayer/meditation

Sources of an erroneous conscience?

Bad examples, enslavement of passions, assertion of mistaken autonomy of conscience, rejection of church authority, and lack of conversation and charity

What is conscience?

Conscience is awareness of God's call to be, to know and do the good, that is to love, and practical judgment of the intellect

What does the word conscience mean?

Knowing with or being witness to oneself

Myth

Many skeptics believe conscience is a fake concept, the creation of organized religions to help control people through guilt

peer pressure

Not just a problem with teens, at any age conformity to the standards and actions of members of our age group or social group greatly affects our way of looking at life, our values and our way of behaving

Ways to resist negative peer pressure

Results of your own person, no your own standards, use humor and Grace to say no, stay away from situations that might tempt you, and remember the power of prayer

How long does it take to form a conscience?

Takes humility and it's a lifelong task

Majority opinion

This view of conscience surrenders personal responsibility to the group or to the latest survey

Super ego

View attributes our decisions to past conditioning and not a personal, self chosen response

Gut instinct

View provides a little thought or study

Jiminy cricket

View thinks of conscience as an internal voice dictating to us what we should do

Must I always follow my conscience?

Yes, A human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience

Conscience

an individual called by God to be a loving person, to search for moral truth, to do good in the concrete here and how situationsituation

Can my conscience ever be wrong?

even a well formed conscience can make mistakes, we must always follow the dictates of our conscience, even if it's erroneous. If you follow your conscience and good faith, even if you later find out that it was objectively mistaken, you were not guilty of sin

A feeling

holds that individuals are the creators of their own moral rules and are only answerable to themselves. Hold sincerity As the prime value

What factors contribute to an erroneous conscience?

ignorance, free choice and human intellect are two important qualities of being human, to compromise either causes a serious rift in our relationship of the living God.

What are the miss conceptions?

majority opinion, feeling, super ego, gut instinct, Jiminy cricket, and myth