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Free Will

 
Free Will It seems to me that one of the things that the bible teaches, that many preachers have preached in sermons I have heard when I was growing up is that one of the things that sets us apart from other animals and even the angels themselves, is free will.
Free Will
It seems to me that one of the things that the bible teaches, that many preachers have preached in sermons I have heard when I was growing up is that one of the things that sets us apart from other animals and even the angels themselves, is free will.
It seems to me that one of the things that the bible teaches, that many preachers have preached in sermons I have heard when I was growing up is that one of the things that sets us apart from other animals and even the angels themselves, is free will. We are gifted with the ability for rational thought, intelligence and that crowning glory of free will. The Christian’s highest prophet told his followers, “Judge not lest ye be judged”. Jesus himself walked with a prostitute at his side after having saved her from being stoned and telling the crowd, “Let him who is without sin throw the first stone.” These are the teachings that were passed to his followers to filter down through the chronicles of time. He taught gentle love, tolerance, being a brother to his fellow man, charity and compassion. Yet, somehow, these things, the things he instructed his followers as the guide to live their lives by are so very rarely followed by many of his modern followers. He taught that one should live their lives as a testament to their beliefs. To set an example. Not to judge. Yet, what we see in the world now seems to be in direct contradiction to what he taught. The church leaders cry out in anger to instill hatred to homosexuals. They seek to control a woman’s freedom with her body. They condemn charity to any who do not share their beliefs. And they base their condemnations on a few small verses in the Old Testament. Yet, similar verses with different rules in those same books can be disregarded as unnecessary. It’s hypocrisy at its finest and something I am sure that, if the bible is correct on the kind of man Jesus was, he would be highly offended at. Free will is the ability to use the gifts you have of your intellect, your reasoning, and listening to the voice of your heart to make the decisions of your life. Free will is the ability to make mistakes, to learn from them. Free will is the ability to choose a path that may be different from your neighbor, your brother, your associates. There are laws that cross most beliefs, and I find these to be the true laws. Don’t harm others. Do unto others, including your earth, as you would have it do unto you. Take no more than you need. Care for each other. Do not judge one when you have not walked in their shoes. They seem pretty simple and most people, most religions, hold these beliefs. Is it wrong to love someone of the same gender? It exists in virtually every species of the animal kingdom. But, there are those that will say that it is unnatural. That means its against nature. My rational mind says that if it is indeed against nature, it would not happen so frequently in nature. I don’t have to be sexually attracted to my own gender to be able to understand that in some humans, it is part of their nature. Just as it is part of the nature of some humans to be attracted to those of the opposite gender. That also happens in nature. Is it wrong to love your own gender? From the Christian God viewpoint, I don’t know that there is an answer to that. We pull on ancient texts of laws written in a different time, a different culture. Just as we can’t apply all of the laws they held at that time, we can’t be sure on this one either. But, I don’t believe it is any of our places to make those decisions, those choices for others. Those that believe in that God cannot possibly know the mind of that God. They even say as much in their words. It says it in their book. It is not their place to judge. If there “truly” is a wrongness, then it will be out on the “judgement day”. Until that time, they must allow free will to guide each individual person’s actions and behaviors. So, where is the line drawn between the rights of a religious person and one who chooses, lives a different way? Its entirely and solely with the individual. They have the right to choose who they love, they have the right to use birth control, they have the right to control their own body, even if it means their choice is the terminations of a pregnancy. Allowing one the free will to make a choice is not a violation of your rights, freedoms. Denying them that “is” a violation of their’s. They must be allowed, we must be allowed to make those choices. Homosexuals do not raise homosexual children. Homosexual teachers do not create homosexual students. Any more than heterosexual parents always produce heterosexual children. Teaching tolerance of same sex relationships does not make children want same sex relationships. It simply teaches them that love can be found in many packages. That families are created in love and nurture and support. Girls and women should not have to pay a lifetime price for being a victim of rape, making a foolish mistake or being a victim of incest. They should have the right to control when they bring life into the world. If for no other reason than it is likely they will be, if not the sole support, the more substantial support for that life. That life deserves to have the best that can be offered it. The cost of allowing that woman to choose when, if, is in reality, insubstantial. She should not have to answer to any other than her doctor for the choices she makes in regards to her body. It allows her to wait till she is better equipped to take on such a responsibility. You may not like that she would choose to be sexually active out of marriage, or even wait within the bonds of marriage to do so. But, again, she should be allowed her free will. She should not have to answer to another, get permission from another or have her will forced by another. Her using her insurance to pay for those things does not infringe on your religious rights.  Because her body is none of your business.  Your business is “your” body.  “Your” free will is in either making or not making the same choices. Not in controlling her choices. Many of the founding fathers of this country went out of their way to make provisions for personal freedom. Many of them held very strong beliefs about separation of church and state. Many of them acknowledged that we are a country of many religions, many beliefs. They were brilliant men who looked carefully at the failings of governments and countries in history and sought very hard to create documents that they hoped would prevent making the same mistakes in the country they were forming. They created a living set of documents that could be changed as the times changed. They, int their wisdom, realized that they might have overlooked things, that changes in times could necessitate alterations.  They realized that as brilliant as they were, they didn’t know everything, had not foreseen everything.  The administrators of the government were to be the “servants” of the people, not the rulers of the people. They were supposed to set their personal biases aside and listen to the voices of all of the people, not just a select few. The first amendment guarantees us the right to free speech, freedom to assemble, a free press. They believed in free will. Laws are meant to punish those who would murder, rape, steal, harm the fabric of society. They are not meant to control who we love, how we love. They are not attachable to our very bodies. Freedom is not the ability to live by another’s standards, another’s religion, another’s path. Freedom is the ability to listen to the individual song of our soul and live to “that” song. Its not anyone else’s song, we have no right to change the words or tune of their song. And they have no right to change our’s. If we are off key, then maybe not so many will want to sing with us. But, we can still sing it our way. And the truth is that even locked up, tortured, or sentenced to death, our free will cannot be taken from us. We will only lose it if we give it away. And I, for one, will never give mine away. SephiPiderWitch 08/02/2012
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Ponderings
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