In this profound lecture, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III discusses the idea of “the birth of conscience” and refutes a Western theological view claiming that conscience was born in man after Adam’s fall — that is, after eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This view suggests that man had no conscience before the fall, since conscience requires the knowledge of evil.

🔹 Refuting this false concept
The Pope refutes this by explaining that Adam possessed conscience, reason, and understanding from the moment of his creation, since he was made in the image and likeness of God. Reason is one of the essential components of conscience; without it, Adam could not have been rational, nor in God’s image.

🔹 Conscience before the fall
Pope Shenouda explains that Adam knew what was good and that obedience to God was good, while eating from the tree was disobedience and therefore evil. Even though he had not experienced evil, he could still distinguish right from wrong. Eve herself repeated God’s command, saying: “We must not eat from it lest we die,” showing she understood the consequence of sin.

🔹 Evil is not existence but absence of good
The Pope clarifies that evil has no independent being; it is simply the absence of good — lying is the absence of truth, cruelty is the absence of mercy, and hatred is the absence of love. Thus, knowing good is enough for conscience to exist, because man knows what he ought to do even without experiencing evil.

🔹 Conscience is not born by sin but enlightened by the Holy Spirit
He emphasizes that God gave man a conscience from creation to prevent sin and lead him toward good. The conscience is an innate inner voice that can be enlightened by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, and can grow through instruction and guidance. After the fall, conscience was weakened through separation from God, but it was not created at that moment.

🔹 Adam’s fall marked ignorance, not conscience
The Pope explains that eating from the tree brought not true knowledge but spiritual ignorance, since Adam sought knowledge apart from God. His hiding from God showed ignorance, not conscience. If conscience had been born at that time, it would have led him to repentance rather than flight.

🔹 Conscience in eternal life
He argues against the idea that conscience will cease with the end of sin, explaining that in eternity man will still have conscience — one that knows good and practices it — though it will not know evil. Conscience does not only warn against evil but also inspires good deeds.

🔹 Spiritual message
Conscience is a divine gift planted in human nature from creation to guide the soul toward good and to discern God’s voice from the voice of evil. The fallen person does not need a new conscience but rather an enlightened and renewed one through grace, for true knowledge comes not from experiencing evil but from union with God and obedience to His commandments.

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