A lot of people with a passing interest, or no interest in philosophy or theology, confuse the word conscience with consciousness, the former a person’s moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to one’s behaviour, the latter a person’s awareness of self and the external world (animals have no sense of self and are not moral agents). A good example of a person who lacked a conscience because he didn’t believe in God or Hell, was the 1970s’ Cambodia dictator, Pol Pot (“Potential Politics”).

Pot was a Marxist, a man not bothered by his conscience. Many years before the “Year-Zero” slaughter, which began in 1975, a seemingly well-mannered, polite Mr Pot left Cambodia and went to Paris to study radio technology.

While there, he was deeply influenced by Sartre and Marxism. According to historian Paul Johnson, it was Sartre’s ideas that had inspired Pot’s murderous foot soldiers, the Khmer Rouge. When Pot returned to the old country, he created a mountain of skulls during his reign of terror. Writing for Pundicity, Jeff Jacoby said:

It will go down as the greatest rationalization of the late 20th century. What could top it? “I came to carry out the struggle, not to kill people,” says Pol Pot, who supervised the murder of as many as 2 million Cambodians in the 1970s. “Even now, you can look at me: Am I a savage person? My conscience is clear.” an interview with the Far Eastern Economic Review

The Marxist regime, between 1975 and 1979, was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through execution, disease or starvation. A horrific event beyond belief of some of the worst atrocities ever committed on innocent people.

In testimony before a genocide tribunal in Cambodia, Pol Pot’s chief jailer, Kaing Guek Eav, said that children were executed to prevent them seeking revenge (the next sentence is not for the faint-hearted): In order to save bullets, executioners would hold the children by their legs or feet and smash their heads against tree trunks in the ‘killing fields’ on the edge of Phnom Penh. He admitted:

I am criminally responsible for killing babies, young children and teenagers’, referring to photographs he was shown of how the children were killed. The horrendous images of the babies being smashed against the trees . . . I didn’t recognise it at first. But after seeing the photographs I recalled that it had happened. It was done by my subordinates. I do not blame them because this was under my responsibility.

This is what happens when humans turn their backs on God and abandon the conscience. Had Pol Pot believed in God and the prospect of eternal suffering in Hell or bliss in Heaven, the Killing Fields would have never happened.

One theory I can come up with about the moral evil in the world is demonic possession, and this could be caused by drugs or occultist practices creating a portal for demonic infiltration.

No person who is not demonically possessed could seriously harm/torture another human being without waking up in the middle of the night screaming. I have written about other theories on some reasons why this might happen here: What Makes an Ostensibly Normal Person Evil | Mind Matters

But I want to expand on this. On atheism, and under the influence of hard drugs, like cocaine, one loses all inhibitions regarding human life. Was Pol Pot addicted to heavy drugs? We may never know. Despite this, the atheist believes death ends at the grave and people are mere robots made of meat.

So, if true, why not experience your wildest morally sick fantasies? One of the most memorable quotes in the history of literature is in the book, The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoyevsky, when Ivan said, “If God does not exist, anything is permissible.” And he’s right.

In contrast, someone who believes in God has a strong moral conscience and is aware of the prospect of ending up in Hell for eternity. Think about it: The damned scream for unconsciousness, but there is no unconsciousness in Hell. I wrote about it here: Does Hell Exist? – New English Review

Almost all the atheists I’ve ever met or read about, seem like decent people, despite being irritating, but they are piggybacking on the residue of Christianity.

I can’t imagine the ‘culture Christian’ atheist Richard Dawkins ever harming anyone. Like many atheists, I believe that he intuitively believes in God, a kind of phantom God, who is written across his heart and occasionally taps at his conscience.

For lapsed atheists who find God, the guilt of their former lifestyle can be quite hard on their conscience. On finding God, C.S. Lewis said: “No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.”

This might have happened to a character in 19th century Russian literature, when Leo Tolstoy wrote about the profound regret the murderer Makar Semyonich has when he confesses to a killing in his prison cell.

In God Sees the Truth, But Waits (1872), Semyonich approaches an innocent fellow inmate (Ivan Dmitrich Aksionov) falsely accused of his crime:

Aksionov sat down on his bed. He peered through the darkness and recognised Makar. “What more do you want of me?” asked Aksionov … Makar Semyonich bent close over Aksionov, and whispered, “Ivan Dmitrich, forgive me!” “What for?” asked Aksionov. “It was I who killed the merchant and hid the knife among your things … Forgive me!… For Christ’s sake forgive me, wretch that I am!” And he began to sob. When Aksionov heard him sobbing, he, too, began to weep. “God will forgive you!” said he.

Last words to 1 Timothy 4:1-2:

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.