Conscience

We are taught from young to obey our consciences. But I wonder how many people realise how much our "conscience" is influenced by prevailing societal values. For example, in the past, many societies believed that slavery was an acceptable practice and few people would have felt guilty for owning slaves. It took lots of campaigning by freedom fighters before the society's conscience was changed. I think we spend the majority of our lives trying to decide which of our values need to be changed, adapting our lifestyles to avoid violating new-found values and healing from old harmful values.