Last night I was enjoying an email discussion about free will with a chap in Canada who'd penned the essay Tyranny of but. His point was that freedom matters, and that it is inadequately maintained by mildly liberal people who are "seeking some kind of balance between freedom and the tyranny of the state."
I wound down my part of the exchange with this tidbit.
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I was discussing the existence of free will with a protestant chap a while back; he said distinguishing between God's causative vs. permissive will was a debating trick, that there really was no free will, and that God positively causes some people to go to hell; it was pretty sad. For my part, I believe in free will -- I can't help it.
The sophistic wisdom of "everything is relative" is the klaxon sound for the descent into imbecility. The people I know who profess that line of thought don't actually live by it on a consistent basis, fortunately; they just appeal to it when they want to get away with something. The tyranny of but leads to despair and cruelty -- the recurring themes of the pagan world, both ancient and modern.
I wound down my part of the exchange with this tidbit.
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I was discussing the existence of free will with a protestant chap a while back; he said distinguishing between God's causative vs. permissive will was a debating trick, that there really was no free will, and that God positively causes some people to go to hell; it was pretty sad. For my part, I believe in free will -- I can't help it.
The sophistic wisdom of "everything is relative" is the klaxon sound for the descent into imbecility. The people I know who profess that line of thought don't actually live by it on a consistent basis, fortunately; they just appeal to it when they want to get away with something. The tyranny of but leads to despair and cruelty -- the recurring themes of the pagan world, both ancient and modern.
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2 comments:
To my mind, the ultimate liberal statement is the reverberating hollowness of "Quid es veritas?".
>>>[the fellow held that] there really was no free will, and that God positively causes some people to go to hell <<<
but God Himself tells us thatthis isn't so.
Ezechiel 18,13: Is it my will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his ways, and live?
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