Freewill

In the movie, the Devil's Advocate, the character John Milton, aka. the Devil, makes an interesting comment. He is trying to convince the main character, Kevin Lomax, to help him create the Anti-Christ. Lomax, a Lawyer raised in a fundamental Christian religion, has heard both sides of the argument. Seeing where Milton is going with the line of reasoning, Lomax states, "but I have to volunteer." The Devil's answer? "Freewill. It's a bitch."

Freewill is just that and much more. No concept has so inflamed society throughout the ages than the notion of freedom, which is closely connected to freewill. Every war ever fought, in some way or another, was a result of freewill and many have been fought to secure freedom. In American society today, most people take freedom for granted, but in other parts of the world, freedom is still a dream. However, regardless of where one lives, freewill reigns over humans either as a plague or as a savior. How so?

First we need to understand the difference between freedom and freewill. Freedom generally refers to political liberty or the absence of laws relating to how a person chooses to live their personal life. But freewill is something entirely different. Freewill is entirely unaffected by law. Freewill is the right humans have to make choices that affect their lives. So freedom is relative and external whereas freewill is absolute and internal. The two concepts are very similar, but different enough to cause problems for many.

How so?

Let me an example. Let us say a man is standing on the edge of a cliff planning to jump. If is in the United States, he is not "free" do do so legally. He does though, possess freewill, so if he chooses, he can break that law and jump anyway. However, since he is human, he cannot defy the natural law of gravity with impunity, so should he exercise his freewill and jump, he will very soon have neither freewill nor freedom, for he will be dead. The point is, freedom is relative and restricted by law whereas freewill is absolute as long as we are living. Governments can take our freedom, but our freewill is inviolable. But if a government takes our freedom (or liberty), would that not dampen our freewill to choose?

Let me give another example. Say a man is wrongfully imprisoned for some reason beyond his control. He has certainly lost his freedom, but what about his freewill? If freewill is the right to make choices, then would not any action restricting that right be a restriction of freewill? Not really. Some years ago I saw a bumper sticker that read, "Free men don't ask for the right to bear arms." What that is saying is that laws don't pertain to rights. Rights are not something granted by a government, rights are inalienable. Does any of this sound familiar?

That's correct. The Declaration of Independence. That document was drafted at a time when the freedom of American Colonies was being curtailed by England. It was a profound declaration and recognition that rights are beyond the hand of any king or government and shows that while the colonies were, in effect, imprisoned by the King, they retained their freewill, their rights. The colonies further backed up that declaration of freewill by busting out.

It is similar to what a child does on reaching a certain age and stating, "I'm (pick an age) and I can do what I want."

In fact, going back to the original example, even a man in prison has freewill. He can choose to bust out, or choose to fight through whatever legal means are available to him, or he can choose to just "sit it out." In any case, he is still exercising his freewill.

The point I am making is this: While we cannot always choose WHAT happens to us, we CAN choose how we respond. That is freewill. That is something that can never be taken from us.

Life is all about choice and choice is freewill. Freewill is ours to use as we see fit. It can make us slaves to ourselves or it can liberate us. It can enable us to meet our needs or it can allow us to starve. It can cause us to achieve great things or it can doom us to a life of mediocrity. Or it can allow us to live somewhere in between. But in the final analysis, the only person we can congratulate or blame for our lives is ourself.

"Freewill. It's a bitch."