Conscience. Why we even bother?

[branfeynt 101]

Hi, everypony!

I have a question about conscience.

Does anyone have one? Just kidding! 

 

Now is seriously. Sometimes I wonder for what reason the conscience had been created?

I mean, on a short time scale, it's rather, well I don't know, inefficient for a person. Actually, in my opinion, every "good" deed less efficient than a "bad" one. "Bad" deed, it's like a shortcut to get what you want and fast. That is why in real world "good" looses quite often. Some people choose more efficient way and don't care about the rest. (Let the world burn, if emphasize)

Also it means almost nothing when it comes to "survival" things (well in comics and cartoons it means a lot, but you know...   )

 

Still, I do believe that on a long time scale "good" outmatches "bad" (Silly, I know  )

 

But on the other hand, many people (I mean many people) still choose to stand for "good" deeds quite often. Who and why taught it to them?

 

Parents? Maybe this thought is worth a shot, but not always.

 

Some global media agenda? But c'mon! Do you often follow to what they say in media?

 

Illuminati? Maybe... But it's a whole other story! 

 

Religions? Not everyone is religious, but still follows the "word" of conscience.

 

And more important why? For what reason it exists? To hold our society together from not falling apart under wars and hate? Just for fun? Why?

 

Anyway...

 

Please, tell me your thoughts on this matter.

 

P.S. Thanks for your time! Sorry, if I've misspelled something 

[Malinter 3,064]

It exists probably because we evolved from social creatures so we all probably have a collective consciousness that that helps us determine whats "good" for ourselves and others.

 

ofc in the modern age, it takes alot more of a beating these days.

[Moonlight 7,288]

Conscience was most likely created for a way for people to understand the difference between right and wrong. If you do a bad thing, you most likely feel guilty later on; a guilty conscience. if you do good, you feel good and have a good conscience. Doing bad deeds seem to be easier in some cases but it's best for someone to work harder to do the good deed instead. It's just supposed to help differentiate what is best and worst for others and the person themselves, too bad some people either don't listen to their conscience or don't care what they're doing to themselves or others. I try to do good deeds but no one really taught me how, it just sort of comes naturally to me. 

[Discordian 6,015]

Morality is a really difficult subject to discuss. Generally speaking people believe in a definitive "good vs evil" spectrum based around a religoin or even just their own feelings.

 

Personally I believe morality is a man-made construction used to define the things around them as beneficial on a conscious level, at least the more complex morality we use as opposed to the simpler instinctive kind from animals. This can differ greatly from being beneficial on a factual level. The two sides clash quite often with situations that often deal with "for the greater good". It's arguable which side is actually better. On one hand you get results that generally improve something but at the potential cost of peace in the community. On the other you have something that doesn't necessarily improve a situation all that much but lends peace of mind to those involved.

 

Obviously it's not as black and white as all that but it's not unusual for morality to hinder progress of certain ventures because it makes a person or people feel better. We've made a lot of medical progress over the last century but there is a large portion of that progress that was made under very cruel and inhumane situations, particularly during World War II. There are some things we can't exactly do or study because it would be inhumane to experiment on humans or animals to find out.

 

Bigger decisions like that don't come up in our daily lives though. When we think about smaller situations like whether to help a homeless person by giving him some food or a few coins, whether to have that burger because it tastes good but saying we shouldn't because we're potentially cutting our lives short, these are the situations morality tends to play more of a part in during our lives on a regular basis.

 

As for who teaches morality...parents, our peers, religious beliefs. They all play a part in it. Some people choose their own morality based on the things they've seen, others have it because it's simply what they were taught.

 

In the end, if sentient life had never existed morality wouldn't either. If a meteor hit our planet it wouldn't be a good or bad thing, it just hit it and they probably broke parts of each other off. Those parts would then move around a little, maybe fly off into space some.

 

Morality is more or less constricted to sentient life. It doesn't change the universe around it directly, it only colors it.

Edited March 3, 2014 by Discordian

[PsychedelicPony 440]

Our conscience is there for an psychological evolutionary basis. Humans by nature are social creatures, regardless if you are introverted or extraverted you require social interaction ever so slightly whether it be one or many people. This is based on a evolutionary basis of safety in numbers, when a predator threatens you it is harder to defend yourself alone rather than with others. The conscience comes in to regulate how we maintain our relationships and make sure we keep them formed. In psychology we can see that one in a group tends to act in the way the group does in regards to situations and in this instance specifically dangerous situations. In one experiment researchers sat a participant in a room alone and sent what looked like "smoke" through the crack at the bottom of the door opposite of them. When alone these participants left the room and went outside within around 5 minutes. When placed in a group with confederates (people who are not real participants but actually planted by the researchers) they told the confederates to ignore and fail to acknowledge the smoke. In this scenario the participant took an average of a couple hours to actually leave the room. We trust in groups and rely on them to evaluate situations. This may seem off topic, but going back to the conscience it regulates how we act in groups and helps us defend ourselves in dangerous situations.

 

Another reason for having a conscience is the cognitive affect of being ostracized. Studies have shown that when one is ostracized from a group, they experience cognitive distress and in most cases somatic ailment as well. We are so tied to groups that to be ostracized pushes a heavy affect upon us. Our conscience helps us from being ostracized, it allows us to act in accordance to group ideals to ensure we do not get ostracized or neglected from the group.  

[branfeynt 101]

Thank you all for the answering!

 

Thanks for so detailed answer, Discordian!

 

 

 

Morality is more or less constricted to sentient life. It doesn't change the universe around it directly, it only colors it.

 

Nice phrase. I like it! 

 

 

 

This may seem off topic, but going back to the conscience it regulates how we act in groups and helps us defend ourselves in dangerous situations.

 

 

For me, it's not off topic at all. Actually, this experiment give me some useful thoughts on the matter. Never heard of it before. Thanks for it, PsychedelicPony!