DIALOGUE AND CONSCIENCE
Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua
I do not know how many people would agree with Socrates, the ancient
philosopher of Athens that “no person does evil willingly. Jesus prayed for his
executioners and excused their ignorance: “Father, forgive them, for
they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23, 34). St. Paul wrote to the
Romans: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I
do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7, 15). In civil law, a suspect is not called
a criminal until there is enough evidence that the crime under investigation
was committed with full knowledge, consent and volition. The human person is so
complex that science has not been able to comprehend the dynamics of the
totality of human actions. Even Medical Science can not boast of a complete
knowledge of human anatomy. Many
factors are involved in the analysis of human actions and acts of man.
Conscience is formed by environment, culture, religion and education.
These define the world view and horizon of a person. These also determine the
level of reception of a person in dialogue. Theologically, true Conscience is
the voice of God in a person. It enables a person to judge between good and
evil. It helps a person to identify and respect natural laws and civil laws
that are derived from divine laws. In psychology, Conscience is the police of
the mind that reminds a person of right and wrong while in spirituality
conscience is like a guardian angel that directs a person to know the
difference between virtue and vice. There are different types of conscience:
- Right/True conscience is good and well formed. It accepts what is good and rejects what is evil.
- Erroneous / False conscience is the power of the mind to wrongly decide that something is lawful whereas it is not.
- Certain conscience is a state of mind that lacks prudence to change a decision even when it is clear that the action is wrong. This may lead to conservatism as in the case of some people who often refer to the holy books to defend their actions.
- Doubtful conscience is the inability of the mind to take a decision.
- Tender conscience is the power of the mind to form correct judgment based on reason.
- Lapse conscience is the error of the mind to take wrong actions lightly.
- Pharisaic Conscience is the act of the mind to see sin in every action. The mind can not act because everything is sinful and the actions of others are critically judged.
- Dead Conscience is the power of the mind to do evil without remorse. It is a complete lost of the sense of feeling for human value.
Very often we hear some people
say: “my conscience is clear”. The immediate question should be whether this
clear conscience follows the principle of wisdom and love that naturally
corrects whatever injures oneself or another. Does this clear conscience
promote the principles of courage, empathy, commitment, acceptance,
understanding, love, joy, peace, and liberation? Does this conscience has
the noble qualities of love, respect,
charity, compassion, reconciliation, uprightness, brotherhood, generosity,
hospitality, humility, forgiveness, patience, perseverance, politeness,
gratitude, service and sincerity? According to Dr. Vincent E. Rush,[1] when
you violate a value that is residing in your innermost judgment, you commit psychological
suicide because you lose your self-respect. And when you lose your
self-respect, you have lost it all. If love is giving, if love is sharing, you
have to believe you are somebody in order to give.
The formation of character and
conscience begin from the very day of conception. The condition of a pregnant
mother has a lot to contribute to the formation of the child. Pregnant mothers
react differently to the environment and persons. There are some who are easily
irritated and easily get angry. This according to some psychologists sometimes
affects the fetus. It has been discovered by some empirical psychologists that
even the period of birth has a lot of influence on the baby. For instance, if a
mother is in the process of giving birth, clasps her legs while the head of the
baby is already coming out, the baby is likely going to suffer some
psychological defects like:
- The baby will grow up to be afraid of narrow spaces. That means that the baby will not be able to pass through a tunnel. Such a child may not be able to pass a military test and consequently may not be able to be a valiant soldier
- The baby will be afraid of heights. That is to say, may not be able to live in a storey building or climb high mountains.
In the early stages of life, the external
manifestations that are stored in the memory of a baby could have some positive
or negative effect when the baby becomes an adult. There are some people for
instance who would not like to see certain faces. This faces are hated and
absolutely detested. What could be responsible for this? It is likely that a
person with a similar face must have done something terrible to the person when
he or she was a baby. There are others who do not want to associate with people
from a particular tribe either because they have had ugly memories of the tribe
or heard from others negative stories of the tribe in question without proper
enquiry. There are people who detest certain actions no matter how noble and
interesting. It is likely that the person must have received these actions as a
child in a very ugly or violent passion. For example, there is a story of a
lady who detested and hated sex with passion. It was later discovered that
when she was 12 years old, armed robbers raped her violently. That painful experience
gave her a negative impression of sex and men.
There are some personality
disorders that can appear in childhood and later become obstacles to dialogue.
Some of the causes of these personality traits may be attributed to inheritance
as in the case of children raised in an aggressive environment. Consequently,
we should know that a lot of issues are involved in dialogue. We have often been confronted by many people
that we have not started dialoguing with the real people. What I understand by
REAL here are those who are actually involved in violence for whatever reason
to narrate their grievances. For instance, the Federal Government of Nigeria’s
amnesty programme in the Niger Delta should include in their scheme some scientific capacity to identify
the different personality traits and behavioural pattern of the ex-militants as
a case study to know why some Nigerians behave the way they do. The prisons should not only be reduced to
punitive actions. Reformation of prisoners should have facilities for
counselling and psychotherapy. That means that every prison should have the
services of psychotherapists, clinical psychologists, logo- therapists, clerics
and crafts experts.
Perhaps we can take a scientific
and critical look with a sense of empathy at the terrorism in the Northern part
of Nigeria. It is important to take a critical look at the environment where
these violent activities are being carried out.
A proper therapy on the terrorist suspects under arrest should be
carried out with an attendant mechanism that would be capable of healing
Nigeria of terrorism from the root. Terrorism is not just a political and
religious problem but an aspect of abnormal personality that needs a
psychological and clinical attention.
This is the time for Nigeria to dig deep into her intellectual wealth by
identifying Nigerian professors and experts in the various forms of human
sciences to heal Nigeria of human abnormalities that is crippling the nation.
Fr. Prof. Cornelius Afebu
Omonokhua is the Director of Mission and Dialogue of the Catholic Secretariat
of Nigeria, Abuja; and Consultor of the Commission for Religious Relations with
Muslims (C.R.R.M), Vatican City (comonokhua@hotmail.com).
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