Guest Blog from Kenny Wyland:
Continuing from the previous post about secular values, today I’d like to discuss Freedom.
Thomas Jefferson described liberty like so:
Of liberty I would say that, in the whole plenitude of its extent, it is unobstructed action according to our will. But rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add ‘within the limits of the law’ because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.
Without Freedom we are slaves and I simply don’t see value in that situation. Many theists claim that God gives humans Free Will, but I reject this idea flatly.
If you put a person in a house and tell them, “You can do whatever you want, BUT if you step outside the house I’ll kill you” then that is not Freedom, that is living under duress. That is the way many theists live. For example, Christians believe that God has deemed some behaviors as good and some as bad. It is envisioned in many different ways, but the basic outcome is usually death or torment for the “wrong”-doers. That is the same type of duress experienced in the house example. You don’t truly have Free Will if you live under the threat of death. I choose to live in a civilized society and behave according to the social contract. I voluntarily give up some of my absolute freedom in exchange for protection and services. If I decided that this life wasn’t acceptable to me, I could always just go live on a boat in the Pacific and follow only my own rules. I can choose not to submit to the rules and punishments of a given nation by simply not living there. That choice is not present if God’s Judgement is in the mix.
Part of valuing our Freedom is that we must take responsibility for it. If I don’t have choice over my actions and direction in life, then I don’t see the value in it. Fate. Destiny. These concepts are devoid of value in my opinion because if our actions are predestined then I had no part in making my choices. I deserve no praise for my good actions and deserve no punishment for my bad actions because they are not my actions. Freedom means personal responsibility and that scares a lot of people.
Countless times in my life I’ve heard people thank God for saving the lives of the people in some catastrophe. It ticks me off every time I hear it, because God didn’t do anything to save the lives of those people. The First Responders saved those people’s lives. The First Responders chose a career in which they trained themselves how to handle these situations and then placed themselves in dangerous situations in order to help save the life of a complete stranger. THEY deserve the praise, not a non-existent God. I think this behavior stems from a simple psychological response to the overwhelming nature of personal responsibility. Without God and Satan we have to take responsibility for our own actions and our own situations and that’s just too scary for some people.
I’d rather be Free than be a slave to fear.
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