The Idea of freedom, and free will, is tied up with the ability to Love. A good point was made in regards to the original question, with the example of standing on the top of the building: Soverignty of God vs. Limitations of being created. I guess I wanted to expand a bit on that in regards to the theme of moral choices.
I’m going to bring up the Dog again, but I’m using it in a completely different way:
Why do you spay/neuter a dog?
Because a dog cannot say “no” to it’s instincts.
A dog (and any other created thing except for humans) is incapable of self-awareness (essentially, the ability to ask the question “Who am I?”) and is therefore ruled by (Slave to) it’s instincts.
As humans, we are made in the image of God and therefore have self-awareness. Ultimately every human’s reason for being (Our pre-destination, you might say…Flying in the face of Calvinism here) is to be with God…Every single soul created is created to be with God…this is our purpose. If you speak of “absolute free-will” as the ability to change anything about our existance to fit our whim or desire, then you are correct in saying this doesn’t exist. WE CANNOT CHANGE OUR PURPOSE FOR EXISTING.
So, here we see what has led us to where we are as a culture (in North-America particularily), is a misunderstanding of what FREEDOM is.
Freedom is NOT the ability to do whatever one wishes. This is actually personal totalitarianism (I will be granted what I desire, regardless of the cost or effect on other people).
Freedom is the ability for one to order one’s life to it’s true purpose (to align one’s actions/life to the plan of God for our very existance (not my will, but yours be done).
“Absolute” Free-will, as you have been discussing it, only God has. That is because God, in his very self, defines the absolute (such as, the law of gravity, natural law, etc).
So, back to the Dog example: Why do we not spay/neuter humans as a regular practice?
Because we have FREEDOM (Free-will) from our instincts. Our very human-ness (i.e. image of God (difference between us and animals) is found in the ability to control our appetites, our desires. Does this mean that desires are wrong? Not at all, but along with our freedom comes a RESPONSIBILITY to order those desires to our original purpose for existing in the first place. Buy regualarily practicing this (Gee, this sounds like developing virtues…) we become more FREE. By doing this, though, we realize that our desires start to fall in line with the will of God, because our will is the very thing that God created to choose: To choose to Love Him.
The spay/neuter example also leads right into the discussion of contraception, which I won’t go into much here, cause it’s not the right forum, but I’ll say this:
Contraception exists for only one purpose: To make us less human, and more like animals…
If we do not have the ability to say “No” to our own desires, and therefore turn to things that enable us to avoid RESPONSIBILITY for our moral actions, would that not say that you have no more freedom than, say, a dog?
If we are unable to say no, than our “yes” (our freely given “yes”) is meaningless.
(And this is why divorce rates are 60% or worse).
Something to think about…
