The Divine Presence within the Moral Conscience

What if the voice of God constitutes as a part of our moral conscience?  It is an idea I’ve often thought about while sitting through church and listening to the biblical stories of Moses, Noah, and of course, Adam and Eve.  Every time one thinks about saying something harsh or demeaning, their conscience often tries to steer them in the opposite direction.  Could this part of a person’s conscience be the voice of God?  It is said in the Bible that man was created in God’s image, but is there a part of God’s good graciousness in every man and woman’s mind?  If God were in an individual’s mind, then theoretically, he would be everywhere for everyone.  This doesn’t mean that God solely exists in the mind, but rather uses it as a way to communicate and influence individual decisions.  

Often times in cartoons, if a character is trying to make a decision, an angel will appear on one shoulder and the Devil will appear on the other.  This is often how it seems in real life as well.  So who or what is the Devil, if God is responsible for moral and ethical decisions?  I believe there is no “Devil” in the conscience, but only human feelings and emotions that are sometimes irrational and immoral.  The other side is our own voice, which may be obedient or disobedient to the voice of God.  An evil act such as murder is considered immoral and often times when murderers are questioned, they don’t have a logical reason for what they’ve done.  On a less detrimental level, when we were young children and we did something bad, we often knew it was the wrong thing to do, but we did it anyway.  Later, when our parents discovered whatever it was we did, they often confronted us with the basic question, “Why did you do that?”  Often times we couldn’t explain because of what I believe was our own selfish disobedience straying away from the voice of God.  The human side of our conscience seems to seek “thrills” in wrongdoing.

So what about the Devil?  Is Bobby Boucher’s mother completely wrong?  Is everything evil not related to Satan himself?  Remember that according to the Bible, the Devil was once an angel himself, one of God’s servants.  He fell from grace and from heaven, basically because he was self-righteous and unfaithful to the Lord.  He was following his own voice within his conscience; which constantly lead him further from God.  I don’t think the Devil has some mystical force that can be contributed to each of our wrongdoings.  In fact, I believe the Devil is merely God’s example of what can happen to us if we live in constant unfaithfulness and continuous deceit.