In an article titled 'Intelligent Design Theory: Why it Matters', Jay Richards says, "If we are nothing more than the sum of chance, impersonal law and environment, then we are not free and responsible individuals, endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights . Because we are not free we are not responsible; so, paradoxically we can do whatever we want."
Let us delve into this thought a little more closely. While many thinkers believed in the absolute power of the forces of nature which were thought to control the destiny of man entirely, the Sophists of the ancient Greece held that "man is the measure of all things", that he is not wholly the slave of the Fates but can shape his own destiny among his fellows.
Plato insisted upon freedom as a necessary basis for the good life. He would have men to follow their passions, free also to control them and build a higher life by overcoming evil. Aristotle also believed in the freedom of man and held that morality was a matter of free choice - "Virtue as well as evil lies in our power". The Stoics, on the other hand, held that everything in the universe has its beginning and source in the will of God. Yet they gave man the degree of freedom to obey or disobey the moral law. Man may give himself up to his passions and become their slaves, or may conquer them and become free.
The idea of the soul's freedom was also entertained by some of the early Christian thinkers. Others, such as St. Augustine, held that mankind was free with Adam but lost that freedom through Adam's sin. This is the doctrine of the "original sin" by which Adam's sin was believed to have been transmitted to all his descendants. So man is a sinner by birth and can get his salvation only through Divine Grace. Those who will not accept the offer of grace through Jesus Christ are destined to suffer eternal punishment.
Somehow when I read all this, I am very much struck by the over-emphasis on the idea of sin, vicarious atonement and salvation through a particular prophet. This has been the single-most reason why the initiative of the importance of effort in the realization of the self has been taken away from man's spiritual quest. Men get into the way of thinking that because they are sinners, they are helpless.
Final illumination comes through the grace of God. Think of Light. Light is there and to the extent we become pure, to that extent light shines in us. There is too much talk of sin and hell-fire in some form of institutional Christianity, and too little dwelling on the Light. These days many young people do not take seriously the ideas of heaven and hell. If the theory of predestination is true, there is little meaning in moral and spiritual initiative and effort.
All popular conceptions of religion have some idea of an omnipotent Fate. But the central theme of Absolute fatalism is that it assigns no place at all to individual initiative. Very much akin to fatalism is the doctrine of predestination, which to some means, "God's unchangeable decision from eternity of all that is to be". In this scheme, human life is reduced almost to a puppet show.
However, as distinct from this school of thought, there are others who grant an amount of free will to man and find this freedom compatible with Divine omniscience and goodness.
I have seen people hampered in life by false theology as well as by false astrology. People lose initiative by believing in astrological calculations, many of which in the long run prove to be wrong. Many blame the stars and the planets and the signs of the zodiac, and hold them responsible for all their failures. "The fault is not in our stars but in ourselves", says Shakespeare. By removing the fault that is in ourselves we can change our destinies.
Kindly readers of this article may please leave a comment in "rating" for my self-analysis. Thank you.
Bhaskar Banerjee runs iBongo Inc. as a Business Development Manager for iBongo Inc. and manages a recently developed website http://www.Rajasthan.iBongo.com He is dedicated and works hard to ensure success.
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