July 15, 2008 Why do you do what is right, rather than what is
wrong? That is hardly a new question. It troubled the minds of
the ancients. Some felt that humans are naturally drawn to
virtue, but they were hard-pressed to explain why some
individuals seemed to resist this impulse. Others argued that
society had to make a firm impression upon the young,
inculcating a desire for virtue and character that was more
external than internal. Fast forward and the Victorians in
Britain were convinced that a lack of virtue could be traced to
either heredity or deprivation. Assuming the British middle
class as normative, the Victorians offered the advice famously
advocated by Jiminy Cricket to Pinocchio -- "Let your conscience
be your guide." Experience indicates, consistent with what the
Bible teaches, that this advice has limited value. The
conscience is a human capacity for sure, part of the moral sense
that testifies of the imago Dei, but it is just as deformed by
the Fall as any other capacity. Conscience alone ex