Science refers to humans as higher animals and beings even when there are animals stronger than us to the point of causing us harm. Some of us try to justify our superiority with religion that God made us supreme over them and to use them for our survival while some of us attribute our superiority to knowing the difference between right and wrong, decision making. The ability to choose between right and wrong is one of the unique traits we have as human beings, it is not surprising that the concept of right and wrong has been attributed to our religion, social values, culture and ethnicity.
Occasional conflicts arise to dispute if conscience is truly a guide for our actions. Some of us may argue that the concept is nonexistent when we see people engage in cruelty and social vices without remorse while some of us will still insist the concept can't be ignored but can be suppressed in our minds.
What we fail to realise is that whether or not we come terms with it, the conscience is an existent concept that we indulge in. People who seem not to have it are like that because they have been taught, disciplined, orientated and engaged in such act with people telling them it is just the right thing to do. People who seem to be too cautious of their actions are that way because they have grown under guidance, culture and laws that mandate them not to indulge in those acts that we view as cruel and abominable.
The concept of conscience can be the solution to our problems and our undoing. Conscience can save lives when we adopt a new way of seeing right and wrong that will benefit others and clear example of this is accepting that no ethnicity, social class or race is superior to us and we treat everyone with love, kindness & respect, and fight for the rights of the oppressed & underprivileged even with their diversity. Conscience would become our doom when people are coerced, manipulated and made to believe that their actions are right even when it poses a threat to humanity, a clear example is the white supremacy concept some people live on.
Humanity can never know peace with these conflicting views about conscience unless we adopt a universal conscience which may be impossible. Before engaging in anything, we should be able to think about it's aftermath and analyse if it contradicts the basic human rights of others, pose a threat to our peace, is in sync with our societal values and if we would not mind the same being done to us.
Daring to be different is most times the only way we can progress because change is constant. Slave trade, social discrimination and gender oppression was once an acceptable and legal practice in our societies that people of the past developed the conscience of being right to but with time, it was abolished when people opened their minds to realise that these acts harmed another race and gender limiting their potential & contribution to societal development. Burning down forest and felling trees was also a trend before we realised its damage to our ecosystem and environment, then afforestation was encouraged as well as wildlife conservation laws is now promoted.
Laws and penalties are not enough guide to tell us what is right and wrong. The concept of right and wrong is subjective to change and we should open up our mind to see this. As the world advances in innovations and development, new threats arise and the only way we can tackle them is reviewing those old concept we hold on to judge and interact with others.
Accepting our diversity and realising that what is right in our society may not even be right at all will bring us several mile closer to achieving peace. We have to develop our minds to analyse the damages and development our actions bring not only to ourselves, our society but to the world at large. The world spherical and it is no wonder that we are all connected and depend on each other for survival whether we admit it or not.
The uneven distribution of natural resources, topography and weather conditions is enough reason for us to realise we need to work together to build up ourselves. Imagine a world where we all come from the same race, have the same minds and see things the same way, that kind of world will limit our innovations and ideology.
Some nations aim to have the best economy with its people living in luxury, some aim for world domination, other nation just strive for peace of its people. Whatever our intentions are, we cannot refute the fact that we all want to be recognised, accepted not labelled nor stereotyped, to become the best at whatever we indulge in but we forget to consider that other people share these ideas so we must treat them with dignity, love and respect.
World peace and progress will seem like a mirage until when we begin to take responsibility for our actions, review our laws and it'd transparency, opening our minds to innovations and most importantly see others as equal to us with the same right to happiness that we desire.
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