Key concepts

• Conscience


  Human reason making moral decisions. The knowledge we have of what is right and wrong and the God-given compulsion within all human beings to do what is right and avoid evil
• Evil


  The absence of good and the impulse to seek our own desires at the expense of the good of others, which often results in suffering
• Free-will


  The decision making part of a person's mind is called the will. A will is free when a person is able to choose right from wrong without being controlled by other forces
• Goodness


  The quality of being like God: seeing the well-being of others selflessly
• Incarnation


  Literally "Made flesh". The Christian belief that God became man in the person of Jesus, fully human and fully divine
• Natural Law


  The moral laws of right and wrong which are universal and not dependent on human laws. The belief in natural law is the belief that the moral law is discoverable by every human being as is the same for all human beings in all places at all times
• Privation


  The loss or absence of a quality of something that is normally present. Evil is a privation of good
• Suffering


  Pain or loss which harms human beings. Some suffering is caused by other human beings (moral evil) some is not (natural evil)