Is the Voice of Conscience the Voice of God?

Many philosophers, including St Thomas, have held that the voice of individual conscience is the voice of God speaking to the individual, whether he is a believer or not. This would resolve the alleged conflict [between obeying God and exercising  moral autonomy] because in following one's conscience one would at the same time be discharging his obligations as a worshiper to obey God. However, this manoeuvre is unsatisfying, since if taken seriously it would lead to the conclusion that, in speaking to us through our 'consciences', God is merely tricking us: for he is giving us the illusion of self-governance while all the time he is manipulating our thoughts from without. Moreover, in acting from conscience we are acting under the view that our actions are right and not merely that they are decreed by a higher power. Plato's argument in the Euthyphro can be adapted to this point: If in speaking to us through the voice of conscience, God is informing us of what is right, then there is no reason to think that we could not discover this for ourselves -- the notion of 'God informing us' eliminable. On the other hand, if God is only giving us arbitrary commands, which cannot be thought of as 'right' independently of his promulgating them, then the whole idea of 'conscience,' as it is normally understood, is a sham. 

--James Rachels, "God and Human Attitudes"

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