conscience
The horizons of life have expanded greatly in the modern world, presenting
us with all kinds of choices people in simpler times did not have. This makes
the development of a genuine conscience to guide us all the more imperative.
The Lord gives us an inherent sense of right and wrong, but it has to
be formed and nurtured. To develop a true conscience we need to learn the
teachings of the Word, reflect upon them, and apply them to life.
When living by spiritual principles becomes a matter of habit, the value
and beauty of Divine truth becomes more and more apparent. We take it to
heart, and it forms a new will in the intellectual part of our mind – which is the
definition of conscience. The truth is then no longer just a matter of knowledge,
but of life. Truth that is loved speaks to us, and to act contrary to it would make
us uncomfortable.
People speak of being “troubled by conscience,” but the real cause of the
discomfort is that we have acted badly, not the awareness conscience gives us
that we have done so. If you burn your finger on the stove, it is the heat that
causes the pain, not the nerves that enable you to feel it. If a sound grates on
your ears, the problem is not that you are able to hear, but that the sound is
discordant.
(WEO)
the truth, the whole truth, and the post-truth?
For several years now the Oxford Dictionaries name a “word of the year.”
These new words have become part of our vocabulary – and are signposts for
the way our culture is heading. Not surprisingly, most of these words recently
have their roots in new world technology: hashtag, app, tweet. This year’s entry
is post-truth.
Post-truth is part of the fallout from the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom
and the raucous presidential campaign in the United States. It is an adjective
defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are
less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal
belief.”
So truth becomes not something clearly defined by facts but by slippery
interpretations, sometimes based on “fake news stories” planted in social
media. Truth has become a victim of group think and emotional moorings,
like the “situational ethics” of the 1980s. This “truth” is whatever people say it
is, defined by personal whim and feelings rather than facts.
This is not a healthy sign – either for the state of our politics or our culture.
We all need to be guided by truth in our lives – universal and absolute truth, the
Lord’s truth. When we are led astray by various versions of truth, constructed
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