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Douglas Geivett said, “A great deal of responsibility for suffering or for evil generally in the world today is rooted in how we exercise the freedom we have.” What are evidences you have seen of the connection between the freedom to choose and human suffering?
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This is so interesting because I think that in some nations the Church (big C church) has elevated personal freedom (my right to carry arms, freedom of speech, freedom of press, my body my choice (on different topics women’s rights, medical etc..)) above God and in doing so they have mistakenly turned freedom into a god. I think that some nations are living the ugly consequences of this: pastors failing because there is no check and balances, families that won’t speak because of politics, pastors preaching politics rather than the word of God from the pulpit, the desire to do what every you want and not care about others safety or health, choosing to protect only people that are convenient to your own interests rather than recognizing that everyone (I mean EVERY ONE!) was made by God and is loved by GOD. When the word Christian is just another name for a political party rather than what it should be a lover of Jesus a follower of Christ. All of this is happening in the name of God and it is hurting not only that nation but the Church globally.
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When we have the freedom to choose, we has mere mortals have the chose to do evil from the sin that is engrained in our lives. Freedom of choice gives us the chose to not choose God and work for what we want. This chose of working for what we want leads us to hurt people to achieve our goals. Not having God as our guidance we have no hope of a future, with no hope, we strive to achieve what we want no matter what the outcome or who we hurt in the process. This hurting leads to human suffering hurt others to achieve the outcome we want.
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Almost any evil can be traced back to a decision to exercise freedom if you look hard enough. When individuals choose to prioritize a vice over themselves, or their loved ones, it will always end in suffering.
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I have seen evidence in my own freedom to choose, based on bad choices and then the results and suffering of those bad choices. We reap what we sow. I think in all cases, even if we don’t intend it, all our bad choices affect someone else, not just ourselves. In the case of abortion, that freedom to choose to abort that baby, the life God gave, results in murder and suffering of the baby and mother; whether the mother chooses to suppress that suffering or not.
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There are countless. The choice in many things we as humans use that impact our own body and the bodies of others; smoking, drinking, over eating, eating unhealthily. The choices we have had to make use of natures reserves-oils, gas and more-we are now experiencing the suffering that comes many years after those choices have been made and practiced over and over.
