A Gift from God?
by Groff Schroeder
Religious politicians often claim
freedom is a gift from god
frequently following this claim
with impassioned calls for murderous
wars in order to create,
defend or restore freedom. If freedom
is a grant from god, how can
it be taken from its recipients? Is
gods gift of freedom a gift of such little consequence
that god simply ignores those who routinely employ
assassination, bribery, corruption, false imprisonment,
propaganda, torture, totalitarianism and war to wrest
freedom from those who received it from the divine? |
We are taught that gods are omniscient (all-seeing),
omnipotent (all-powerful), magical beings with infinite kindness and
love for all human beings. If a god is allseeing, (s)he must know
that many people have lost their freedom to vicious tyrants and that
those who revoke the allegedly divine gift of freedom often claim
special dispensation from the very god who presumably granted the
freedom their actions destroy. How can a kind and loving god turn
a blind eye as obviously corrupt people who claim to act in the gods
behalf revoke such a precious gift? Gods failure to ensure that
the recipient retains the gift of freedom brings the notions of omniscience
and omnipotence into question. Why would a god bestow the gift of
freedom while allowing its summary revocation by mere humans?
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Numerous men and women fought and died in
World War II, liberating many nations in Europe and
Asia and granting freedom to the peoples of the nations
they liberated. Does this make them gods? If President
Bush brings freedom to Iraq, will he become a
god because he granted freedom to a people who did
not have it before? |
Freedom means the right to act, speak, think, write
and worship as you please, which can only exist when
due process, habeas corpus, and other legal protections
exist in a social and legal framework governed by
the Rule of Law. Freedom is not a gift, but a product of
reason and societal evolution that requires defense
from intellectual, foreign and domestic enemies. |
The intellectual enemies of freedom include propaganda
and covert action. Propaganda destroys freedom by creating the impression
that freedom exists when it actually does not. Propaganda can also
attack freedom by convincing people to tolerate and even defend horrific
atrocities, creeping repression and outright totalitarianism. Covert
military action, or other political actions hidden from the people
through state secrecy, can quietly destroy freedom in virtually any
nation even our own. |
Before a foreign enemy can take our freedom,
it must overrun our nation and gain direct physical control over the
People of the United States. Americas massive military superiority
and the numerous arms retained by American Citizens obstruct foreign
threats to our freedom.
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In contrast, domestic enemies of freedom can and do easily
revoke our freedoms. Thanks to rampant institutionalized corruption
in government and pervasive diversionary propaganda, money can buy
anything in the US Government, including extensions of copyrights
in violation of the US Constitution, sweeping exemptions from environmental
laws, stunning electoral mischief and the passage of laws establishing
religion. |
Freedom is not a gift from god and those who provide
freedom are not gods. Freedom is an increasingly rare condition of
the human spirit that each of us must individually recognize, obtain,
cherish and preserve through knowledge of the Constitution and personal
work in its defense. |
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Or write to us at:
Freethinkers of Colorado Springs
P.O. Box 62946
Colorado Springs, CO 80962-2946
Phone: 719-594-4506
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