Conscience enables one to assume responsibility for the acts performed. (C.C.C 1781) Conscience or one’s conscience is ‘the awareness of a moral or ethical to one’s conduct’ (dictionary.com) In a society wrought with injustice, genocide and rationalization consciences are examined every second of day after day. It is people whose consciences have yet to be fully deteriorated, who are able to examine their conscience and assume responsibility for the acts performed who keep society from decaying. These characters exist in media, religious texts, neighborhood crimes and mass murders. They demonstrate that through the examination of conscience one is able to be accountable for their deeds.
Gavin Bannick from the movie Changing Lanes provides an excellent example of a man assuming responsibility as a result of his conscience. Throughout most of the movie Gavin is portrayed as a conscienceless man, his morals having no monetary value appear to be lost in an endless void. After losing his file to Doyle Gibson, Gavin takes all possible measures to retrieve his file but not once does he sincerely assume responsibility for what has happened. That is, until he goes through an epiphany. In the afternoon he witnesses Doyle’s wife leaving school with his two adored sons and it is at that moment that Gavin really starts to examine his conscience. After this revelation, if one were to call it that, Gavin proceeds to as Doyle would say, “Set things right.” It is after Gavin becomes conscious of his conscience that he sincerely takes responsibility for the acts performed that Good Friday.
“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her….And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one,” (John 8.7-8.9) This famous parable allows the reader to gain insight into the power of conscience. Jesus demonstrates how highly he values conscience by using it as tool to teach laypeople justice, love and mercy. The billions of Christians who have read this tale of morality are able to deduce that it is when the Pharisees examine their consciences that they accept responsibility for their wrongful accusation and leave Jesus to tend to the woman.
But what of those who do not accept Christ or, what Dostoyevsky portrayed as, the ‘Grand Inquisitor’? On page sixty-two of Our Moral Life in Christ there is a quote stating, “The conscience is sacred for in it God speaks to us.” Does this mean that non-believers do not have sacred consciences and are therefore are unable to assume responsibility for their actions? No, for atheists, humanists and people of other denominations God can simply be replaced with purity, the highest possible good even justice consequently rendering the sentence the original statement into “the conscience is sacred for in it purity speaks to one.” It is when this ideal of goodness exists that one has a concrete conscience that enables that person to assume responsibility for their dealings.
Movies, parables and reasoning are all great examples of how the stated thesis is true but what about the real world? Does conscience truly enable one to assume responsibility in our society? Missing since August seventeenth Alicia Ross was quickly on her way to becoming just another Holly Jones or Cecilia Zhang. It was a common case, nothing extraordinary about it, young females are abducted every so often and they face brutal murders. However, there was something rather uncommon about this case, it related to the murderer, Daniel Sylvester. What made Mr. Sylvester different was the fact that he turned himself in. As his lawyer Hobson said “His conscience got the better of him.”” It was his conscience, or so it is speculated, that led to him assuming responsibility for his sin and turning himself in.
As with everything there are those people who take on such a great amount of responsibility upon themselves for actions that they might not even be directly be linked to that they become depressed, anxious, even suicidal. Lieutenant General Romeo Dellaire is a fine example of one’s conscience enabling them to assume responsibility to the point of attempted suicide. Lieutenant General Dellaire was a Canadian peacekeeper during the Rwandan genocide. He sets an example of a man who’s conscience could have very effortlessly been deteriorated to the point of inexistence, nevertheless he used his disciplined character to keep his conscience pure and has shown one both the positive and negative effects of one’s conscience enabling them to take responsibility for their actions.
Whether it is Eric Rudolph bombing abortion clinics, George W Bush killing at least one hundred thousand Iraqi civilians, or Adolf Hitler murdering millions of people there are always those who paint a very clear image of the consequences of one not having a concrete conscience. They show not only their lack of conscience, because surely any sane person would agree that these men lack strong consciences, has or had kept them from assuming responsibility for their actions. Rudolph, Bush and Hitler illustrate for the general public that conscience enables one to assume responsibility for the acts performed and thus a lack of conscience enables one to commit countless inhumane crimes.
Conscience is the most powerful advisor a person will ever have and therefore it is both a very pleasant and unpleasant friend. Steering its owner away from rationalization a conscience is something that many people wish they did not have but still recognize the significance and importance of. Without conscience enabling on to take responsibility for their actions today’s society would be in a state of utter anarchy and progress in all fields would and could not be made. The positive sides of conscience are made obvious in changing lanes, parables, its ability to give families of victims disclosure and its applicability to all beings. Also apparent are the dangers of a lack of conscience which can be seen in the likes of Hitler, Rudolph and Bush, a conscience’s authority causes some to have suicidal thoughts. As it is already known, conscience is what enables one to assume responsibility for the acts performed.
REFERENCE PAGE
Catechism of the Catholic Church (1781)
Holy Bible The New Revised Standard Version (1993)
Rev. James Socias(2003) Our Moral Life in Christ. Chicago, Illinois
Rob Stein (October 29, 2004) 100,000 civilian deaths estimated in Iraq. Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7967-2004Oct28.html
(September 21, 2005) Man charged with murder of Alicia Ross. CBC http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/09/21/alicia_ross_abducted20050921.html
(Oct. 24, 2003) Indepth: Romeo Dellaire. CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/dallaire/
AN EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE
By: Azarnoosh Sadeghi
HRE23
October 14, 2005
Teacher: Mr. Costanzo
