CALLS FOR CONSCIENCE

	Presented below are several situations which call for a conscience response.  Please read and study each of the situations and decide how you would resolve the problems.  

Situation A: 
You go to a school where there is a lot of pressure to achieve high grades.  Your parents also expect you to do well.  You are carrying a B average and are now in your senior year.  Your sociology teacher is not the best in the school and, as a matter of fact, is a bit unfair.  He has planned a difficult test for you and your classmates.  You know from a past experience that 50 percent of the students cheat on his exams.  You have studied pretty hard, but you know unless you cheat, many others will get a higher grade than you.  What would you do?

4 Reasons for Cheating:	

4 Reasons for Honesty:

My Decision:  On a scale from 1 (most inclined to cheat) to 5 (I will remain honest), I would decide (highlight one)

1   -    2   -    3    -   4    -   5

Situation B:
Your good friend offers you a drug (a beer or marijuana).  At first you refuse her offer.  She tries to talk you into it by saying that she has only experienced fun with drugs.  “Besides,” she says, “you can’t really hurt anyone but yourself.” She adds that it is nobody’s business but yours whether you take drugs or not.  The law and parents should not prevent you from enjoying yourself.  Would you take the drug?

4 Reasons for taking it:						

4 Reasons for not taking it:

My decision: On a scale of 1(most inclined to take it) to 5 (I will not take the drug), I would decide: (highlight one)

1   -    2   -    3    -   4    -   5

CONSCIENCE SURVEY
	Below are three statements representing different ways of looking at conscience. Please mark the scale provided from 5 (strongly agree with the statement) to 1 (strongly disagree).

1. Something is right for me if I think it is right. 
	
1   -    2   -    3    -   4    -   5

2. In making moral decisions, sincerity is all that matters. 

1   -    2   -    3    -   4    -   5

3. No one has the right to judge my actions right or wrong. 

1   -    2   -    3    -   4    -   5

 

Discussion:

a.	If sincerity is what matters, then was it all right for Hitler to kill the Jews? Is it OK for you to steal from a store to give money to the poor? Give reasons for your answers to each of these questions.  At least 50 words

b.	If some action is right because “I think it is right,” what role does law have? Do other people play any part at all in our moral decisions? Explain. At least 50 words.

IMPLICATIONS

	Discuss the results for society if good intentions were allowed to justify these actions.  Write at least 30 words for each one:
1.	Abortion (to protect a person’s good reputation)

2.	Theft ( in order to feed the poor)

3.	Getting drunk (in order to relax from the tensions of job or school)

4.	Killing (in order to end a person’s pain)

5.	Forced sterilization (to limit over population)

6.	Thought question: Suppose your conscience comes into conflict with either church teaching or with the law of society. Should you first question church teaching and the law or your own conscience? Why?