Did You Know?

Did you know that your conscience evolved? Yep. It did. The way atheists explain it, if some behaviour or thought helped your ancestors survive, your brain, today, decides that it is “good or right.” If a thought or behaviour hindered your ancestor’s survival, then your brain, today, thinks of that behaviour as bad or wrong.

Because this explanation doesn’t deal very well with things like abortion (not good for survival) or giving one’s life to save someone else’s (not good for survival) or suicide (not good for survival) some atheists have offered two possible alternatives:

. Yes those beliefs are hardwired into our system but we don’t have to listen to our survival instincts. We just override them whenever we want.

OR

. This is all an illusion. The “I” that we think is deciding really doesn’t exist. There is no conscience because it’s all just firing neurons and chemical exchanges.

None of this gets us very far toward knowing what the conscience is, how it works, can it be trusted, how much or how often should we use it. We do know that it’s an important element in forming of our moral character. When we don’t stifle our conscience and when we allow it to cohere with what Jesus taught, life becomes much less frustrating and much less damaging to those with whom we interact.

We have two main roads upon which to travel.
Option One:
. Make things up as you go - like atheists advise. This works quite well until you meet other cultures who believe something totally opposite to what you believe.

For example:
In culture A, it’s considered absolutely correct and vital for the survival of that society if you stone your niece to death because she is dating someone outside of her family’s belief system.

In culture B it’s considered absolutely correct and vital for the survival of that society that you don’t stone your niece to death because she is dating someone outside of her family’s belief system.

Atheists have no answer to this since atheists insist that right and wrong is relative to the situation and is determined by the majority vote in any given society or community. As the saying goes, “In any given universe, there is room for only one god. When one god meets another god, something has to give.

In atheist world Might = Right.

Option Two:
The other option is to listen to your conscience. It was put in place by your Creator and He gave us His teaching, in Person to back up what our conscience tells us. If you’re unsure (and atheists are always unsure - in fact it drives them nuts when they meet someone who isn’t living in a perpetual state of uncertainty) Jesus has promised to give anyone who asks, a new Christlike character where the overall goal of the person to reflect the character of Jesus becomes inherent or second nature.

This new goal or vision of life allows us to live in such a way that we find ourselves already practising the behaviours that we will be doing naturally in the next stage of life. If, as atheists suggest, we give people instructions on the fly, well, you can perhaps live rightly for the day here and there. If as Jesus says, you allow Him to give you a new heart, and new character, then there are no areas in which “Love your neighbour as yourself” will not come naturally.

Which do you think is best for survival?