I want to encourage people to examine, develop, express, work, and live by the dictates of their conscience. A conscience is an inner sense of which ideas and actions are good, which ones are merely adequate, and which of those things which we think or do are neither. Both the church to which I ascribe and the local laws where I live use the phrase “dictates of conscience,” and that allows me to frame my encouragement in a way that applies to the difference in those standards and also the unique perspectives of individuals. The dictates of conscience are a little more powerful and formal than conscience alone. Where a conscience is an inner sense and usually an unconscious one, the dictates of conscience are the conscious ideas and thoughts that come out of it, and they can usually be intentionally directed to shape it. I expect that this will be different for everyone.
While I think that an external moral framework can be helpful in motivating people to follow the dictates of their conscience, I do know people who seem to have done so as a matter of personal ethics without adhering to a system of morals as a basis for those dictates. I see morals as coming primarily from the outside of people working inward and ethics originating from the inside focused outward. Both of these in my opinion will always influence a person’s conscience, but whether people make the effort to examine and understand these influences is a matter of choice. By intentionally embracing or denying parts of this social framework the dictates of conscience are formed and reformed. Both directions of examination and development of conscience are important in my opinion.
If you are asking by what needs to be done to express and live by dictates of conscience or in other words “How can I be true to my conscience?” The starting point is simple. Examining your conscience only takes considering what you value and why. The next important step to developing it is to write it down and review it. This allows unrefined values to be crystalized into statements that are personally meaningful to you. Once you have defined what motivates you and why, you need to tell the world. Not everyone will agree with you, but you can use those disagreements to further explore and refine what you believe. Admit when you are wrong and learn from that as well. And don’t forget to write down and review the ideas that reshape your thinking. When you know what you believe and why, the best way you can express and defend this is to be a living example of those values. Each journey is personal, and so the road map you follow should be as well, but I am willing to help you to do what I’ve been doing. Living according to the dictates of your conscience is a simple concept, but it takes a lifetime of practice. I would like to inspire as many people as I can to start that practice. I can’t make the journey for you, but I invite you to consider and take courage from mine.
Latter Day Sinner 