Conscience, Religion, and the Axial Age (Part 1)
In my psychiatric practice for 41 years, I incorporated spirituality whenever appropriate (which was fairly often). A significant part of my effort was to emphasize the importance of using conscience to guide one’s choices. So, I explained the difference between conscience and the other inner guide, the other socially programmed guide called “superego,” borrowing a term from the famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. Basically, Conscience uses reason and the Golden Rule to judge what is a good or bad choice while the superego just uses whatever standard it picked up from the person’s group.
N.S. Xavier MD
8/22/20255 min read


Conscience and Religion
In my psychiatric practice for 41 years, I incorporated spirituality whenever appropriate (which was fairly often). A significant part of my effort was to emphasize the importance of using conscience to guide one’s choices. So, I explained the difference between conscience and the other inner guide, the other socially programmed guide called “superego,” borrowing a term from the famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud. Basically, Conscience uses reason and the Golden Rule to judge what is a good or bad choice while the superego just uses whatever standard it picked up from the person’s group.
I have often used the story in the Bible about an adulteress to illustrate the point. A group of guys had caught a woman committing adultery and brought her to Jesus. They reminded him that she should be stoned to death according to the law of Moses and asked for Jesus’s opinion. We can imagine the emotional state of the men. Sexual, aggressive, and religious feelings. Jesus used a calming distraction by bending down and writing something on the ground. Then Jesus stood up and said: “He who is without sin, throw the first stone.” By addressing them individually, Jesus was getting them out of group thinking into individual judgment and the men silently left one by one (convicted by their own conscience according to the King James Bible). The men came using their superego judgment and Jesus stimulated their consciences using reason and the Golden Rule and they left with their consciences stirred.
My book Fulfillment Using Real Conscience addresses many differences between conscience and superego and how it applies to our choices as we meet our human needs. That book received endorsements from Fr. Richard Rohr, Deepak Chopra, Nobel laureate Óscar Arias, and Prof. KLS Rao, and blessings from Pope Francis. Subsequently, I realized moderation is another key element in conscience. Moderation is emphasized in Aristotle’s’ Golden mean, Confucius’s doctrine of the mean, and Buddha’s middle way. In the story of the adulteress, after the men left, Jesus asked the woman whether they condemned her, and she said no. And Jesus said: “I don’t condemn you either. Go and sin no more.” We can see that Jesus took the moderate position between condemning her and letting her go scot-free. Another element in using conscience is respect for truth. In my upcoming book Conscience, Spirituality and Religion, I have added moderation and respect for truth as important elements of conscience. Aristotle, Confucius, and Buddha lived during the so-called “Axial Age.” It is extremely beneficial for us to understand the Axial Age to have a good perspective on conscience, spirituality and religion.
I have treated many people suffering from self-hate. In those cases, the people’s superegos hate the people for not living up to the unreasonable and unfair standards of their superegos. I helped them by educating the difference between conscience and superego and helping them to use their consciences to balance their superegos. It has been a difficult task at times. Incidentally, all kinds of hatred are connected to superegos, not consciences.
The Axial Age
In 1949, the German psychiatrist and historian Karl Jaspers used the term, “The Axial Period” to refer to the historical period from 800 to 200 BCE. The reason Jaspers used this term was because of the tremendous spiritual, psychological, and religious progress of humanity during that time. The sages of the Axial Age included Confucius and Lao Tzu in China, the great philosophers and dramatists of Greece, Buddha, and authors of the Upanishads in India, and Zoroaster of Persia.
Although Jaspers had included Zoroaster in his list of the sages of the Axial Age, later historians realized he lived much earlier than 800 BCE, more like between 1500 and 1000 BCE. So, he can be considered a transitional sage who was a very important person. Inspired by his Divine visions, he became a spiritual teacher. He taught that an ongoing conflict is occurring in the world between the good God Ahura Mazda and an evil force Ahriman. Individuals have the freedom and responsibility to be on the side of Ahura Mazda, live by the principles of good thoughts, good words and good deeds and enjoy heaven hereafter. People also have the freedom to follow Ahriman and do evil deeds, but they would end up in a fiery hell after death. The conflict between the good and evil forces would lead to an intense fight in which the evil forces and the hell with its inhabitants would be destroyed. They believed in the resurrection of the dead and the eternal happy lives of the good people in a paradise.
Zoroastrian follower King Cyrus the Great (590-529 BCE) is famous for the “Cyrus Cylinder,” a football shaped cylinder with writings about his conquest of Babylon and his plan to give freedom of worship to various communities. So, the Cyrus Cylinder is considered the first bill of rights. Cyrus freed Jews from captivity and became the only non-Jewish person anointed in the Old Testament. Greek historian and student of Socrates Xenophon in his biography of Cyrus hailed him as an ideal ruler. Thomas Jefferson was inspired by the book.
Confucius
Confucius lived when there was terrible anarchy and violence in China. He was a bright student and became a great scholar who taught history, government, mathematics, music, poetry, propriety, and sports. Analyzing Chinese history, he realized there was a peaceful period in the past when people followed certain traditions. The old traditions had lost their harmonizing effect. So, he realized his countrymen needed a new and improved deliberate tradition. He promoted such a tradition. The five elements of the new tradition are:
(1) Jen translated as love, benevolence, human heartedness. The Golden Rule was emphasized by the master.
(2) Chun Tzu, being a mature person: stable, competent, peaceful and not boastful.
(3) Li which includes propriety, the Doctrine of the Mean (the Golden mean) and appropriate rites.
(4) Te which is power, especially the power of virtue.
(5) Wen which refers to the arts of peace; music, arts and poetry. The deliberate tradition was popularized and promoted by social prestige. Scholars were at the top and soldiers at the bottom of social respect. Confucius believed that he had the mandate of the heavens to promote his teachings.
Lao Tzu
He is believed to have lived in the Chou province of China working in the library of the local ruler. His efforts to promote goodness had not succeeded and in frustration he was running away to the Tibetan region. A guard at the border persuaded Lao Tzu to write down his ideas, and he did it in 5000 Chinese characters. It became the famous book Tao Te Ching (The Way and Its Power).
Lao Tzu promoted simple living and high thinking, goodness, moderation and complementarity of many opposites. The symbol of Taoism shows the two basic forces yin (female) and male (yang) have complementary functions. He emphasized calmness and balancing. Taoism emphasizes the relativity of all values. For enhancing energy, a proper diet and exercises like tai chi were recommended. Acupuncture is believed to remove blocks in the energy channels which cause certain dysfunctions of the body.
The next article of this series will explore the Greek Axial Age, its enduring influence, and the Indian Role in the Axial Age.
NOTE: This article was originally published on Red Letter Christians blog on August 18, 2025.
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