re: #980 freetoken

I have some thoughts that will take quite a few words to describe… but somehow the time goes by too quickly.

Bottom line: I’m considering that Sowell’s dichotomy is a function of his Christian-worldview-influenced society. If one were to look at Man strictly in an evolutionary paradigm the constrained/unconstrained dichotomy may not apply.

Like I said… it would take lots of words to explain, more time than I have now.

I’ve thought that too, but I think that is because we are of a “Christian” society. Or what we think of as a “Christian” society. But it seems that non-Christians have chosen to live in our society and have thrived, so maybe it is really a more “Western-Greek-Roman-Judeo-Christian Society” or just “A Society based on Reason”.

In the end, I do think that our society depends on:

1) the believe that “rights” originate in a power greater than ourselves -and are inalienable. Meaning that NO human can grant or dismiss them. Now that “power” can be whatever one whats to think of as that “power.” A god, the God, nature, or some unsolvable mathematical equation —whatever.

2) That what those who were raised as Christan’s think of as “original sin” is simply the fact that humans are not and can never be PERFECT. We all have flaws, will always have flaws and that our system of government will also be flawed—and has to be able to work around those flaws. Humans will be humans.

3) There are things that are out of our control. In the Christian thinking we tend to say “God’s Will”. Hurricane Katrina hit shore because there are things that are out of our control —whether one thinks of it as “God’s Will” or that Nature has cycles and forces that we cannot and will never be able accurately predict or prepare, or however one thinks about it —there are going to be tragedies and disasters that will JUST HAPPEN. It isn’t any human being’s fault. (I might also add, the Economy is the Economy —leave it alone!)

4) We have Free Will. Meaning that with rights we have responsibility. No medical diagnosis, or bleeding heart can negate the fact that when we reach the age of majority, we are responsible for the words we say and the actions we take. I don’t think that is purely a Christian idea. We think of it as so because we are used to hearing the words “Free Will”.

IMHO, labeling our Freedom in any religious terms is a big part of the problem. There are those that will argue till they are blue in the face on whether or not our Founders were “Christians” or “Humanists” or whatever. In the end, IMHO, they were men that were Classically Educated, removed from the insanity of Monarchy and a purely class-based society and who had some real world experience. To be fair, higher-education in their day was dispensed by a religious institution. Yet, they specifically did not want a State Religion.

They did something extraordinary —they THOUGHT.