The question of evolution of human conscience arises only when we believe in theory of evolution. I do not believe in the theory of evolution. I believe that conscience was given by God rather than being evolved from man’s superior mental abilities.
The debate of right & wrong turns on its head if we believe that conscience is an evolving entity, because if it is indeed an evolving entity then with passage of time it takes different shapes and forms due to social, economic, environmental, political, cultural forces exerting their influence on it.
What this further means is that our sense of right and wrong is constantly changing or rather evolving and what seems to be permissible now may not be permissible tomorrow and may again change back to being permissible with passage of time.
By this logic our laws should also evolve with time to accommodate the changing paradigm of conscience of the society. So today if you are being punished for stealing money it only means that you are out of sync with conscience of the society you live in and actually you have done nothing wrong. I had expressed similar thoughts in earlier blog.
Isn’t what I said in the paragraph above total rubbish? Yes it is.
Social Scientists like to look at so called “developed” civilisation to get a sense of right or wrong, but who decides what a “developed” civilisation is? I was reading an article by a lady couple of days ago who said that babies born with physical or mental shortcomings should be put to death. Her justification was that this was common practice in the Roman Empire.
Who decided that Roman Empire is the benchmark for judging right or wrong? Why can’t an African tribe be the moral benchmark for the world?
Our conscience comes by looking at God and not looking around or within. We will face this dilemma if we look for answers around or within. We need someone unlike us to tell us good and bad. We need a referee to tell us right and wrong. We need a benchmark which will not change. Only with this belief we can be rest assured about the state of our society.
To avoid conflicting human opinion and point of view on matters of morality & conscience, God gave Ten Commandments through divine intervention.
Conscience according to the Bible is not evolving. It is static. It does not change with time.
