Gerald Brooks: Freedom and free will

To The Daily Sun,

Received a letter referencing an earlier letter to the Laconia Daily Sun, responding to another letter received. The earlier letter referring to God’s desire to help us. Responding that God had already helped in that we were given free will seemed reasonable. Referenced our founders' gift as well, our constitution which was meant to limit our government and secure our freedom to make our own life.

Well according to Genesis it wasn’t exactly free in more than one sense, as it was taken. A price was to be paid for having done so. Of course the man (Adam) was only responding to Eve’s direction – "try this!”

But his error was he’d been previously told not to partake of the fruit of that tree. That garden had other trees and the fruit of one would have given eternal life if eaten – so. To hinder the chance to partaking of it Adam and Eve were sent from the garden, to till the soil, to labor to feed themselves. The fruit they had taken gave the ability to know the difference between good and evil; Chapter 3, 21, "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil." Chapter 3, 22, "and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever."

Free will was given in the sense that the tree was placed in the garden, (in The Lord’s Prayer it is asked that the Lord not lead us into temptation); in the end it all boils down to humans knowing that their actions and thoughts may be for reasons other than simple routine or survival. Also one might consider the willful change of the Prayer given by Christ, it is to now read “do not let us fall into temptation;” we should all just forget Genesis.

Well we know the rest of the story, so what are the chances we’ll get any direct known or unknown help or assistance. That all depends. As it turns out PBS has just released a video (2 CDs, 4 hours) Hacking the Mind, do you really want to know, buy it. As the recent letter says, evil is all around us. Indeed, it was Satan who in attempt to sway Christ and offered him all the land visible to him (Christ didn’t deny Satan his ownership).

As with the earlier letter the response is that we are to proceed knowing the good and be glad. Raising my son he was presented with only one rule, "Don’t lie and especially to yourself." He learned and his life is good. So it is the simple guidance which rests our soul, "Do unto others as you’d have them do to you." And as far as what is happening today, elected state and federal government officials were never meant to serve a lifetime, they were to uphold the constitution and serve the people in doing so.

Gerald Brooks

Meredith