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What Freedom Really Is December 15, 2000 I have lived a brief eighteen years on this planet, and already I have come into contact with such dangerous requests as to define freedom. To define freedom is more than a difficult task, but perhaps easier than one might imagine if not overanalyzed. Given ample time to consider the task, however, a simple, sufficient definition can present itself: freedom is the ability to choose, for any creature living life in any place in any time. There is no greater truth to the statement, and no underlying meanings; freedom is simply the ability to choose. So one might ask, "If this ability to choose applies to all creatures in all places in all times, why can freedom only be defined in the context of the specific creature whose definition of freedom is concerned?" That is simple. Freedom is something that can only be experienced to some extent; there is no such thing as absolute freedom. However, each varying life form has differing boundaries to which this freedom can conform. If such a thing as absolute freedom were to exist, then those who possessed it could do absolutely anything imaginable. One could then wonder, if there is this implicit ability to choose, what (or who) this ability is derived from? This could potentially be a difficult question to answer, for any reply would certainly imply some brand of creation that any one could disbelieve. A supernatural being (I'll refer to the Christian "God") could have created the universe in which we live, or it could have been constructed by chance. Neither view can be proven, and neither can prove the other wrong, and there is no law saying that a combination of the two cannot be the reason for our existence. If God is our omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent creator, the question becomes not who or what we came from, but where He came from. Divine creation may offer some answers, but it is not an explanation. There are no observable effects that distinguish its product from a "naturally" originated universe. Not only is it unobservable and incomprehensible, but it is also supposed to be performed by an entity whose own origin simply reintroduces the mystery that it was his function to eliminate. Thus the arguments of origin are infinitely looped and predestined to be inconclusive. Instead of looking that direction, I would suggest that life is very scientific and spiritual, and therefore any and all interpretations of origin should comply with such a simple definition for freedom. This leads back to the question, "what is this ability to choose derived from?" Well, as I stated previously, freedom can only be identified and defined within the contexts of each life form to be considered, so perhaps freedom is derived from the limits of each particular life form. A dog cannot speak English, just as a human cannot lift himself or other objects into the air. There is then the argument of the limitations of freedom. I have in the past argued that there is no such thing as freedom or free will, or that all events and thoughts are merely predetermined by those that preceded them. I have abandoned this belief for the definition of freedom that I have attempted to explain above, and because that belief was based on my interpretation of freedom to mean absolute freedom, which does not exist, as I explained above. The idea that all events are predetermined could potentially be true, but the freedom of the mind is to choose in the here and now, and in the contexts of our living, we make the choices that lead to that predestined conclusion, if one should exist. In other words, despite any notion of fate or destiny implying a lack of freedom, we are free in the here and now to choose our respective paths. All creatures always have the ability to choose within the constraints of the form their life has taken. All creatures have limitations, and to some extent, those limitations can even be chosen. A child can choose to obey the restrictions set by his mother, limiting his freedom on a very small scale, or he can choose to violate his. Any such freedom is derived from the life in which each individual has chosen to live based on his origin, not directly from the creator (what or who ever that may be). © III Enterprises & neotope.com |
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