The ego is self-serving. Conscience is God-serving. But the ego is welded to the conscience and often conflicts with it.

Atheists reject the source of the conscience but the presence of a conscience doesn't depend on one's rejection of its source anymore that the earth doesn't stop being an oblate spheroid for those who believe in a flat earth.

If an atheist bothered to explore their conscience, which they probably do more than religious people, they would see that there is a part of them that places certain limitations on their behavior, and this has some kind of source other than themselves. The actual source being your parents and media who defined your idea of "good" very early on, not God. But, like a muscle, consciences can develop and strengthen, so that they become less a tiny voice inside and more a motive force behind all we do. But they are only strengthened insofar as they are exercised.

The ego, on the other hand, sees no moral governance beyond self. It seeks self-glorification, regardless of external impediments. Its love is of self, not other. When it serves another, it is for the glory one receives for being generous, not because of love of service. It seeks its own ends.

Posted by Theophilus in Spero Forum .

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