Skip to main content

Free Will, Guilt, and Innocence

By Carl S ~

Some research seems to indicate there might not be such a thing as free will; that our choices might result from forces beyond our control. Some claim other non-human creatures act from "instinct," so they might argue that that goldfinch I'm watching now is not exhibiting confusion of mind as whether to stay at the feeder or not. I'll argue that bird, and definitely crows, make free choices, based on observing their behavior. We're all in nature, making decisions.

Religions depend on our having free wills, for without them, they couldn't judge and damn us on their terms. (Although the Christian doctrine of predestination might as well eliminate free will, since individuals will be condemned or rewarded, in spite of what choices they make.) All religions teach children should be shamed and/or punished, for being "willful."

Some things are obviously in favor of free will. For example, when my wife or somebody else tells me, “Why thank you! You didn't have to do that." That's free will. (Recently, I answered this with: "That’s why. Because I didn't have to.") And then there's something psychologists call "passive-aggressive behavior." What's the point of that, since it apparently has nothing to do with evolution? Isn't such behavior, this asserting personal disagreement with the terms of another, a covert freely willed choice to avoid confrontation?

Religions teach Free Will is the biggest deal we own. It's preached as something even a Deity Thing won’t mess with. Every religion wants to control that freedom, if not take it away altogether; it's that valuable. It strikes me as human perversity; those who claim to value their free will easily give it up to dictators, cult leaders, clerical figures, and others who are far beneath them in moral behavior. And to think this is especially true in "the land of the free!"

Perpetrators argue against free will by their actions, and by excusing themselves from responsibility: "God told me to" or, "It says so in the bible," or the classic, "I was only following orders." They really believe they had no choice but to do what they did? One benefit to being a Christian is, when it comes to being irresponsible, there are "outs" for forgiving bad decisions. There’s a price for forgiveness. It is to relinquish one's option to reject religious authority.

It strikes me as human perversity; those who claim to value their free will easily give it up to dictators, cult leaders, clerical figures, and others who are far beneath them in moral behavior.Honestly, you have no free will when it comes to your taste in music, art, sexual orientation, or even the body type or looks of a person you accept for a friend or lover. You don't choose who you're sexually attracted to nor do they, if they're attracted to you. All of these non-choices can be frowned upon, ridiculed, or outright condemned, by religions. What are you guilty of? So what if your choices are due to the influence of your peers, or pleasant experiences associated with them, more than their value to others? Usually, what you consider important now will change as your life changes. All of these things are harmless, a.k.a., "innocent," meaning you are an "innocent" person.

Innocence is your nature. So is curiosity, questioning, and investigating - all attributes the religious tell you not to freely use whenever it involves their faith. Our question is: Then why are religions trying to make you a criminal for being guilty of human innocence?

Gestalt therapy, a branch of psychotherapy, is based on a theory: “Lose your mind and come to your senses." The goal was to get you in tune with your senses, to forgo thinking while tuning up. And there's a lot to be said for that. Now, we all have experiences of cheering for the home team, laughing with our audience, mourning together, etc. We know what it means to lose ourselves to sexual longing and rapture. Sexual and addiction experiences will alter our brains, with or without our consent. Do we really demonstrate free wills, "under the influence"? Do we care? Should we ever feel guilty about those feelings? Religions co-opt "going with the urge, going with the flow" feelings, exploiting them for their purposes. "Lose your mind" allows their dogmas to take over your free will, "under their influence."

Religions say, Make what we tell you are the wrong choices, and you'll be sent to eternal torture. My oldest brother would say in jest, "I will have your free consent, even if I have to beat you into submission." Not funny: this is how my parents and their siblings were taught in parochial school. Christianity demands one oxymoronic "choice": Accept Jesus as God and savior, as per John, 3, v. 16. If you don't believe this, you are guilty and condemned. This defines a "Christian." But get this: as a Christian, you can be sent to hell anyhow, as it says in Matt. 25, vs.35-46, for your inactions, so you’re still guilty. A whole lot of believers have suffered and died on "both sides of the aisle," using
these quotes. But, you're not guilty of harming anyone or anything just because you can't believe some things; you’re innocent. And it would be immoral to punish you for not clothing, feeding, etc., someone who represents a "person" no one can prove exists! Ridiculous guilt.

Consider: If you were baptized as an infant, that religion began to dictate your life as a child. If baptized as an adult, you were "under the influence" of authority figures in a closed environment, subjected to peer pressure, and "shielded" from different interpretations of reality. If you were then gullible by nature to believe b.s., well, that's something over which you have no control. Anyone raised in a religious environment is open to being brainwashed into believing b.s. where gullibility is taught as virtue.

If you're like me, you've developed an immunity to gullibility, and an intolerance for religious hypocrisy, in "coming to your senses." I'm adult, mature. My nature just can't stomach b.s. any more. I won’t apologize for vomiting it up in public; it's a natural reflex.

I go to pick up my wife after her church service, but I'm most uncomfortable among the members. Lately, a "chicken or the egg" problem nags at me: Since I'm aware of so many believers who are psychologically, logically, and mentally messed-up, I wonder: Are they personalities who are attracted to the system w/o their free will, or are they made that way by the system?

I remember a famous quotation: "You can fool SOME of the people ALL of the time." Maybe I was never a "real" some-of-the-people believer. I'm too practical. I'm happy to be just one of the outcast “willful" ones!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Are You an Atheist Success Story?

By Avangelism Project ~ F acts don’t spread. Stories do. It’s how (good) marketing works, it’s how elections (unfortunately) are won and lost, and it’s how (all) religion spreads. Proselytization isn’t accomplished with better arguments. It’s accomplished with better stories and it’s time we atheists catch up. It’s not like atheists don’t love a good story. Head over to the atheist reddit and take a look if you don’t believe me. We’re all over stories painting religion in a bad light. Nothing wrong with that, but we ignore the value of a story or a testimonial when we’re dealing with Christians. We can’t be so proud to argue the semantics of whether atheism is a belief or deconversion is actually proselytization. When we become more interested in defining our terms than in affecting people, we’ve relegated ourselves to irrelevance preferring to be smug in our minority, but semantically correct, nonbelief. Results Determine Reality The thing is when we opt to bury our

Christian TV presenter reads out Star Wars plot as story of salvation

An email prankster tricked the host of a Christian TV show into reading out the plots of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Star Wars in the belief they were stories of personal salvation. The unsuspecting host read out most of the opening rap to The Fresh Prince, a 1990s US sitcom starring Will Smith , apparently unaware that it was not a genuine testimony of faith. The prankster had slightly adapted the lyrics but the references to a misspent youth playing basketball in West Philadelphia would have been instantly familiar to most viewers. The lines read out by the DJ included: "One day a couple of guys who were up to no good starting making trouble in my living area. I ended up getting into a fight, which terrified my mother." The presenter on Genesis TV , a British Christian channel, eventually realised that he was being pranked and cut the story short – only to move on to another spoof email based on the plot of the Star Wars films. It began: &quo

So Just How Dumb Were Jesus’ Disciples? The Resurrection, Part VII.

By Robert Conner ~ T he first mention of Jesus’ resurrection comes from a letter written by Paul of Tarsus. Paul appears to have had no interest whatsoever in the “historical” Jesus: “even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, we know him so no longer.” ( 2 Corinthians 5:16 ) Paul’s surviving letters never once mention any of Jesus’ many exorcisms and healings, the raising of Lazarus, or Jesus’ virgin birth, and barely allude to Jesus’ teaching. For Paul, Jesus only gets interesting after he’s dead, but even here Paul’s attention to detail is sketchy at best. For instance, Paul says Jesus “was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” ( 1 Corinthians 15:4 ), but there are no scriptures that foretell the Jewish Messiah would at long last appear only to die at the hands of Gentiles, much less that the Messiah would then be raised from the dead after three days. After his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus—an event Paul never mentions in his lette

Morality is not a Good Argument for Christianity

By austinrohm ~ I wrote this article as I was deconverting in my own head: I never talked with anyone about it, but it was a letter I wrote as if I was writing to all the Christians in my life who constantly brought up how morality was the best argument for Christianity. No Christian has read this so far, but it is written from the point of view of a frustrated closeted atheist whose only outlet was organizing his thoughts on the keyboard. A common phrase used with non-Christians is: “Well without God, there isn’t a foundation of morality. If God is not real, then you could go around killing and raping.” There are a few things which must be addressed. 1. Show me objective morality. Define it and show me an example. Different Christians have different moral standards depending on how they interpret the Bible. Often times, they will just find what they believe, then go back into scripture and find a way to validate it. Conversely, many feel a particular action is not

ACTS OF GOD

By David Andrew Dugle ~   S ettle down now children, here's the story from the Book of David called The Parable of the Bent Cross. In the land Southeast of Eden –  Eden, Minnesota that is – between two rivers called the Big Miami and the Little Miami, in the name of Saint Gertrude there was once built a church. Here next to it was also built a fine parochial school. The congregation thrived and after a multitude of years, a new, bigger church was erected, well made with clean straight lines and a high steeple topped with a tall, thin cross of gold. The faithful felt proud, but now very low was their money. Their Sunday offerings and school fees did not suffice. Anon, they decided to raise money in an unclean way. One fine summer day the faithful erected tents in the chariot lot between the two buildings. In the tents they set up all manner of games – ring toss, bingo, little mechanical racing horses and roulette wheels – then all who lived in the land between the two rivers we

On Living Virtuously

By Webmdave ~  A s a Christian, living virtuously meant living in a manner that pleased God. Pleasing god (or living virtuously) was explained as: Praying for forgiveness for sins  Accepting Christ as Savior  Frequently reading the Bible  Memorizing Bible verses Being baptized (subject to church rules)  Attending church services  Partaking of the Lord’s Supper  Tithing  Resisting temptations to lie, steal, smoke, drink, party, have lustful thoughts, have sex (outside of marriage) masturbate, etc.  Boldly sharing the Gospel of Salvation with unbelievers The list of virtuous values and expectations grew over time. Once the initial foundational values were safely under the belt, “more virtues'' were introduced. Newer introductions included (among others) harsh condemnation of “worldly” music, homosexuality and abortion Eventually the list of values grew ponderous, and these ideals were not just personal for us Christians. These virtues were used to condemn and disrespect fro