The concept of 'God' and all the things in between...

Chapter 6: The Concept of FREE WILL (An Introduction)

*** Jeff's POV ***

Setting: He arrived at a shanty, under Quiapo bridge, full of filthy human garbage and pavements smudged with all kinds of dirt known to human eyes. This is his so called home. Student by day, poor boy living alone by night. It's a tough world for him, but he's tougher.

"God looked at his creation and everything was Good, and there was a day and a night..."

This is an echoing idea that suddenly popped up on his mind.

"This doesn't make sense to me. If everything that God created was good, then why does evil exist? Is it because of "Free Will"? Because he had given man his freedom to choose for himself? The burden to discern from what's wrong and right? Why give him "Free Will" and blame him, or worst punish him, when he choose evil over good, when he is just applying the freedom that God gave him in the first place?"

As he moved the huge tire that blocks the door of his shanty house, he saw a fierce cat running across his way. Its mouth is filled with a dead rat, freshly caught from the vast field of floating garbage where predation is rampant.

"Does Free Will exist in animals too? Did the cat choose to kill its prey rat without the obligation of being punished for the crime of taking an innocent rat's life? Yeah! I know! My questions are getting sillier and sillier. Animals don't have free will. They don't even know it exist. They themselves don't even know they exist. Only man has the intellectual capacity to know that he exists, and so therefore he has the power to use his free will, to choose between good and evil. The "Burden of Choice" as many would say."

He threw his bag on his bed, an improvised bed made out of rice sack at pieces of broken wood. He grabbed the lamp and filled it with kerosene as he light the lit with old matches. This would be his main source of light during the entire evening, as the entire 10 square meter floor was engulfed by darkness.

"What is the essence of Freedom?"

He asked himself while he sleep his hunger away. He covered his body with a piece of used tarpaulin that serves as his blanket to warm his body the entire night.

"Is it not true that FREEDOM is the capacity to have CHOICE/Options? If you have no options, then you don't have freedom. If you don't have freedom, then what is there to continue life with? Life without freedom is like life without life. Even man's core laws have incorporated rights to freedom. And yes, we have a lot!"

1. Freedom of speech.

2. Freedom of religion.

3. etc.

"When a Theology Professor takes away his students' freedom to choose what to believe in, and force them to believe in God, he gives them no choice, no other option but to be compelled on what he wants them to believe in, then he is committing a crime! A crime to his students' freedom of choice."

"Is this not the same thing as what God's Free Will concept implies? He gives us 'free will' to choose between Good and Evil, and yes, he had given us freedom since we are left with choices/options but do we really have a choice? We don't! We can only choose Good over Evil and choosing anything beyond Good is punishable by damnation in the so called hell. At the end, we really have no choice at all. There is no freedom within the concept of Free will."

"Is it not good to just choose good over evil? Yes it is! There is really no problem in choosing good all the time, the issue is that Good is always subjective! Who could tell what is good and what is not? The Qur'an/Koran? The Buddhist codex? The Hindu Vedas? The holy scriptures of the Thousand denominations that call themselves Christians? Bible?"

"If the Bible would be our basis for what is Good and Evil, then surely all gays and homosexual would have no place in heaven as homosexuality/acts would never be considered Good from any parts of its scriptures. This is just one point of argument among the thousands of issues that the Bible could not really come to peace with."

"Do we just interpret the Bible base on what we would like things to be Good at? Consider this as Good because the Bible says so? You read the same verse but thousands of Christian denominations interpret it in thousands of different (and most of the time, contradicting) ways as well? Same faith but different beliefs in what the Bible say? All of them believe in God, but whose God? There are a Thousand and no one knows what is true. No one could prove its existence."

"But this is where our freedom starts. Freedom to choose what to believe in. Yes, choosing what to base our belief on is a tough decision and it is mind blowing sometimes, but in a world where reality is more barbaric than expectations, it is always wise to be very vigilant in seeking for evidence and proof first prior to believing something. If free will is really true, then I am using my free will to seek more knowledge into whether I was born with a purpose or I was just born out of random spontaneity that reality revolves on. Out of the random way where life existed and where this Universe started."

"Are we a product of our parents' parents free will or is free will a product of our random rationalization of how things existed?"

"I may never find out..."

His eyes shut closed, while the night was young and overly decorated with shining stars above the heavens, twinkling like beautiful eyes among the clouds, where only his subconscious whispers are echoing, only his deep thoughts... only his deep thoughts.

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Author's Note:

This has given me brain cramps. As the story progresses, it is getting tougher and tougher to deal with the concepts that the story needs to revolve on. It feels like I need a Masters in Theology or Philosophy to go through each detail of what I want to incorporate in each passages. For now, I will give my brain cells a break, wiggle them with music and put them to sleep. Lol.

I the next chapters, I intend to compare world religions. Why has man come up with so many religions, sects and denominations, where in fact, they profess the same belief, in one God, but with different interpretations? Is it required to join a Religion? 

This would be a complex chapter. I'm bracing my Neurons. Lol. 

Updated: 04/24/2016

7:50 AM