*Free Will n. philosophy: the doctrine that the conduct of human beings expresses personal choice and is not simply determined by physical or divine forces.
Let me begin with a disclaimer: if you do not believe in free will and have a tendency to get all bent out of shape by people who do, you might want to stop reading.GREAT! Now that that is out of the way... people who do not believe in free will truly crack me up. I get this visual of some mousy character, very sexless as well, just bumbling along saying stuff like "Well if God wills it...." and "Its not like I have a choice..." We have been discussing this in my CS Lewis Topic Philosophy class, and the topic of Epistemic Distance came up. Epistemic distance is a distance in knowledge, but in the Biblical sense of the word "know," as in to be with something is to know the something. We spoke in class about how we would not have free will if God did not keep an appropriate epistemic distance from us. He must neither be too close nor too far, for in the end the choice to love Him and follow Him must be ours and ours alone. "We are free, and God has granted us this great gift of freedom in a desire that we will use this to be with Him; united with Him and still distinct."
*The Ten Commandments (slightly... okay, really abbreviated)
1. No other gods
2. No idols
3. Do not take the Lord's name in vain
4. Keep the Sabbath
5. Honor your parents
6. Do not kill
7. Do not commit adultery
8. Do not steal
9. Do not bear false witness
10. Do not covet
A lot of people think- or at least, a lot of people in my Bible class think- that because the Ten Commandments are of the Old Testament, and thus made obsolete by the whole Jesus thing, they do not apply to Christians and do not need to be strictly followed by Christians. I disagree (otherwise I would not be rambling about it all). These laws/rules are often taken out of context, or elaborated upon to ensure the obedience of those who keep them, or just neglected because of apathy or arrogance, and I believe these unfortunaties happen because of a gross misinterpretation of the Law. God set these ten little things out for humanity so as to protect us from ourselves and each other, and to allow the love due to neighbor and self and God to grow. Of course, some of these rules are a kind of "no duh" statement- don't kill, steal, sleep around, lie- and thus fairly easy to follow. Others are sneaky- we think we follow them when in actuality we are in direct rebellion against them. Do not worship idols. An idol can be anything, from the typical culprits- sex, money, drugs- to the less obvious ones- children, family, country. How many times has our society put a greater emphasis on children than the relationship that made them; how many times has a nationalistic fervor racked our country; how many times has someone done an atrocity in the name of family. Honor your parents, which, by the way, does not merely mean respecting them. It means being the type of person that makes people praise those who made one that way. Personally, I hope that every word that falls from my mouth illuminates my mother and father for the extraordinary parents they are. Keep the Sabbath. This is the one statement that so many people seem to have a serious problem with. It was set in place for two reasons: to provide rest for everyone and to allow time to worship. The Sabbath, in true God-fashion, is logical to its core. Humans need rest, but we often deprive ourselves and each other of this necessity; God fixed this problem by making it required. Kind of like a bedtime for humanity. So yeah, maybe the Law was sort of condensed and/or negated by Christ, but honestly? We should do this stuff even if we no longer are required to.
On the random:
This afternoon, I sat in on a lecture regarding chaos theory and fractals and they are FREAKING AMAZING! I have an inner math nerd, and she is very happy right now.The lecture was in conjunction with a play going on right now- Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. The play is fantabulously hilarious.
*I encourage anyone who either disagrees with me or is very enthusiastic in their agreeing to comment, But please, keep it friendly.
Let me begin with a disclaimer: if you do not believe in free will and have a tendency to get all bent out of shape by people who do, you might want to stop reading.GREAT! Now that that is out of the way... people who do not believe in free will truly crack me up. I get this visual of some mousy character, very sexless as well, just bumbling along saying stuff like "Well if God wills it...." and "Its not like I have a choice..." We have been discussing this in my CS Lewis Topic Philosophy class, and the topic of Epistemic Distance came up. Epistemic distance is a distance in knowledge, but in the Biblical sense of the word "know," as in to be with something is to know the something. We spoke in class about how we would not have free will if God did not keep an appropriate epistemic distance from us. He must neither be too close nor too far, for in the end the choice to love Him and follow Him must be ours and ours alone. "We are free, and God has granted us this great gift of freedom in a desire that we will use this to be with Him; united with Him and still distinct."
*The Ten Commandments (slightly... okay, really abbreviated)
1. No other gods
2. No idols
3. Do not take the Lord's name in vain
4. Keep the Sabbath
5. Honor your parents
6. Do not kill
7. Do not commit adultery
8. Do not steal
9. Do not bear false witness
10. Do not covet
A lot of people think- or at least, a lot of people in my Bible class think- that because the Ten Commandments are of the Old Testament, and thus made obsolete by the whole Jesus thing, they do not apply to Christians and do not need to be strictly followed by Christians. I disagree (otherwise I would not be rambling about it all). These laws/rules are often taken out of context, or elaborated upon to ensure the obedience of those who keep them, or just neglected because of apathy or arrogance, and I believe these unfortunaties happen because of a gross misinterpretation of the Law. God set these ten little things out for humanity so as to protect us from ourselves and each other, and to allow the love due to neighbor and self and God to grow. Of course, some of these rules are a kind of "no duh" statement- don't kill, steal, sleep around, lie- and thus fairly easy to follow. Others are sneaky- we think we follow them when in actuality we are in direct rebellion against them. Do not worship idols. An idol can be anything, from the typical culprits- sex, money, drugs- to the less obvious ones- children, family, country. How many times has our society put a greater emphasis on children than the relationship that made them; how many times has a nationalistic fervor racked our country; how many times has someone done an atrocity in the name of family. Honor your parents, which, by the way, does not merely mean respecting them. It means being the type of person that makes people praise those who made one that way. Personally, I hope that every word that falls from my mouth illuminates my mother and father for the extraordinary parents they are. Keep the Sabbath. This is the one statement that so many people seem to have a serious problem with. It was set in place for two reasons: to provide rest for everyone and to allow time to worship. The Sabbath, in true God-fashion, is logical to its core. Humans need rest, but we often deprive ourselves and each other of this necessity; God fixed this problem by making it required. Kind of like a bedtime for humanity. So yeah, maybe the Law was sort of condensed and/or negated by Christ, but honestly? We should do this stuff even if we no longer are required to.
On the random:
This afternoon, I sat in on a lecture regarding chaos theory and fractals and they are FREAKING AMAZING! I have an inner math nerd, and she is very happy right now.The lecture was in conjunction with a play going on right now- Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. The play is fantabulously hilarious.
*I encourage anyone who either disagrees with me or is very enthusiastic in their agreeing to comment, But please, keep it friendly.
No comments:
Post a Comment