Issues:

1. Should we always obey our conscience? Think of a moral dilemma in film or literature. What does this tell us about the limits of conscience and the unreliability of shame as a guide.

2. Does it make sense to say “I know what I want to do, but cannot do it”? (Paul, in Romans 7).

3. Where does conscience come from? God, or parents, or life experience?

4. What happens if God is telling us to do something which conflicts with our conscience, like wipe out men, women in the City of Ai? (Joshua 8). Do we agree with Newman when he says “I toast the Pope, but I toast conscience first”? What might Thomas More have argued (or some great figure in history who followed conscience before obedience to the King)?

5. Can an Atheist have a conscience? Where does it come from, and what is the difference between an athiest’s conscience and a Christian’s?

6. Is the existence of conscience something that gives grounds for belief in God?

7. Does conscience develop over one’s life?