How do you understand or make sense of 'conscience'?

Question

for me It’s like a voice that tells you what to do or not to do. it's like someone tells you what's right or wrong...I just want to know some ideas...=)

Answer 1

i think that the conscience, more often than not, is really just common sense. there might be times when the brain just has a little or big f**t, and we blank out on the supply of sense we naturally possess and we go to do things that are not right, whether morally, ethically, physically, financially, etc. i think my conscience is just my God-given common sense that i should apply to any and every situation before dipping myself in.  

Answer 2

This has been a difficult one for me. Because I was born and raised Mormon, my "conscience" was what we called "the still small voice" that came from having the "gift of the Holy Ghost". I was taught that everyone had "the light of Christ" that gave all men the knowledge of what's right and wrong. This still small voice came to me like a voice, just like you, that pointed out when I was right or wrong. Now that I'm no longer Mormon, I still have much of the same kind of conscience experiences, but without as many restricting parameters as I used to have.

Going through my experience with leaving a religion has been an interesting one. It has given me direct interaction with conscience that has added to how I deal with it. For example, I have undergone what we who leave religions call "deprogramming". For me it's been consciously recognizing some of the things that that still small voice wants to tell me, like I'm going to h**l, that I shouldn't drink an espresso frappuccino from Starbucks on Sunday with money I haven't tithed yet, those kinds of things. I have to recognize that there are some things that I can look at on a conscious level, and no matter what I may "believe", it's still wrong. I may believe that 2+2=5 all I want, but consciously I recognize that 2+2=4.

In the end we all rely on our conscious thoughts and intuitive understanding. I've learned to value both in a synergistic relationship. This is how I make sense of conscience.

Answer 3

i understand what you mean, but i think i think of it as the little voice in your head that is you. the thinking part, the one that re-reads your words, the one that can think the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, logic and illogic, the one that... well, you know when you are trying to tell someone why or how something does what it does, and, you think about it yourself, and it makes perfect sense, wheather someone else sees it that way or not, where you don't have to think about it, it is just there and you know it? or, if you want to go with like a medical term, conscious is just being away, but the first one is more in depth, and is more philosophical. i liked the question by the way :)

have a great day!!!

-Angel