Conscience

We all are born with an innate gift called conscience. It tells us right from wrong. While we may or may not agree where it comes from and what influences it, it is, nevertheless, there in each of us.

If we listen to it, we will not make so many mistakes. We will not harm others in the ways that humans can. We will innately keep the 10 commandments, or at least those in which we interact with others.

Or we can dampen it and ignore it, and in so doing become less than we could be, to become degraded, more like animals than angels.

If you have ever had to 'find your courage' to do something you knew was wrong - bend to peer pressure, steal a little, tell a lie, cheat on your significant other, hit someone, or any number of other things - then you actively dampened and ignored your conscience. A marker of this is if you felt bad, if you regretted the action, afterward, even if you didn't in the moment. Sometimes, perhaps often times, the bad thing feels great while you're doing it. But after, when you are alone in your thoughts, regret comes.

The solution to this, if you don't want to listen to your conscience, is to keep doing the wrong things. Eventually, your conscience will stop talking to you. You will become unable to hear it. But the trail of destruction left in your wake will be evidence enough that you've taken wrong paths. And the darkness others can see in your eyes is testimony of what you have done too. If they give you a good look, they can see your selfishness and the damage your choices have made.

The better solution is to stop doing whatever you're doing that you know you shouldn't - to listen to that conscience and do what is right, even when it is hard. In contrast to 'finding your courage' when you do something wrong, when you find courage to do what is right, you feel great afterward, and lastingly so. You feel strong. You feel powerful. And deep inside you know it is the way to live. There is a light in the eyes of such people which is missing in the eyes of those who ignore conscience.

When I think about these two paths, I think of several examples we all know. First, I think of hurting others physically. We all know it is wrong. Our consciences tell us so. If they don't, it is because we have damped its influence for too long. I recently saw a video of over a dozen teens beating one other teen. Severe injury to the head and brain was the result. In another example, death was the result. These videos are popping up more and more. The disturbing thing is the teens do it for fun and usually one who is participating is the one filming. At such young ages, they have dampened their consciences to the point I can't call these animals human. They aren't fit to be in a civilized society since they aren't civilized. They should be permanently incarcerated, at least. There is no rehabilitating one who will not listen to conscience.

I've also seen teens and young adults hitting random strangers in public. Also, theft and destruction of vehicles. Mobs robbing stores. And a host of other things.

A seemingly more mild but no less damaging choice is to have a lot of sexual partners. While it affects both men and women, it affects women to a greater degree. It takes, some studies show, as few as 3 partners for women to lose the ability to pair bond. What that means is that long term commitment becomes impossible, or nearly so. And that makes stable marriages and families also nearly impossible. Women initiate over 80% of divorces and recent data indicates the majority do so because they simply want 'more' than they have, masked as "unreconcilable differences". What they do have isn't good enough, no matter how good the circumstances. A pursuit of pleasure results in never being satisfied. This applies to other realms too, of course.

In fact, men have it worse when it comes to pornography. Even regular users have bouts of their conscience reminding them they should not be watching what they watch. They feel guilty. And if they do not overcome their habits and addictions, they too will be unable to pair bond. They will see women as tools of gratification, not partners to cherish. And as with any addiction, other aspects of their lives suffer as well.

While most people today want to pretend that there are no natural consequences for our actions, especially those bad actions that aren't expressly illegal, the fact of the matter is that every action has one or more natural consequences that follow and we cannot choose what they are. We can only choose whether to commit those acts or not, good or bad. It was once explained to me this way: if you pick up the tail of a snake, you get the whole snake, and if it's a viper, it will bite you, and the poison will unavoidably enter your blood stream, and unless remedied, you will die. If the snake is a constrictor, you may not notice it's wrapping around you and cutting of your air and circulation until it is too late. Either way, it is better to not pick up snakes, but fluffy bunnies instead.

Some may play with snakes and boast that they haven't been bitten - yet. Does that make it less wise if there is a guarantee you'll eventually die from it? As with any analogy, this one isn't perfect; I know as well as you that there are real-life snake handlers that are perfectly fine and in no danger of dying, but you get the idea of what the analogy is meant to convey. We choose our actions, but not our consequences, and do so at our own risk.