Secular Conscience

*People who hold conscience to be important see it as a central feature of human dignity.

*Erosion of conscience by coercion or social pressure makes people less human, as it limits our free moral decision making.

>For example, many Germans were coerced into silence by the Nazis, and as such they lost their conscience through restriction. 

*I should not be forced or required to do things that I genuinely believe to be wrong

>I may hold the view that all killing is wrong, and as such shouldn't be forced to fight a war, as my conscience would be undermined.

*Freud believed the conscience was clearly connected to the sense of guilt and feelings of shame which we experience when we go against the super-ego (uber-ich)

*Conscience is a construct of the mind through socialisation.

>People express disgust in our childhood towards certain things we do

>This is then internalised by the uber-ich. which represses the Thanatos and Eros which the id (es) wishes to express.

*Our conscience is completely shaped by experience

*Our conscience express itself in the need or desire for punishment through guilt. 

*The original intellectual and moral capacity within ourselves

*Conscience is not something we can control ourselves, it is integrated into us

>We can, however, choose whether to listen to our conscience or not.