Day Seven: Rest and the Greatest Gifts of All

Day Seven: Rest and the Greatest Gifts of All

God rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, when no plant of the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up - for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was no one to till the ground; but a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground - then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…..

- Genesis 2:1-10 (Aitken, Robert)

This is the end to the story about how God gave us the greatest gift of life, knowledge, power, and freewill. Ultimately, I know that God gave us the greatest gift of life. Though this gift, I believe that He also gave us the power of freewill when He placed the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. God was gifting us with knowledge and free thought to use the talents he gave us to choose if we wanted to follow his one rule he gave us: “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion every living thing that moves upon the earth.” (Aitken, Robert) To me, this means that God is not only granting us with as much power of freewill that we can handle, but the power to control the earth and animals on it as the most dominate species to ever exist.

With this power of freewill, I believe that it is in our best interest to keep in mind that in the same book in the bible, God plays out a story of destroying almost the whole world to start anew. (Aitken, Robert) The famous story of Noah is only six chapters behind the story of creation in the book of Genesis. In the story of Noah, God is upset with the choices that the human race is making and has decided to save only one family and two of all of the animals on earth. This really brings question to just how much freewill humans have. Yes, we have been given the ability of choice, knowledge, and power, but are we disillusioned with how much freewill we have?

I do not believe so. I believe that when we wholeheartedly believe in God and everything that He has done, then we know truths that do not need a scientific explanation or a high level thought process. For years, this was something I had a hard time grasping until I realized that when I choose to be on the path that God is leading me on, then I am not giving up my freewill, but instead I am freely making the choice to follow. I still have the freewill to make mistakes and oh yea, I do those quite often, but these mistakes have a purpose now that I have chosen to have God guide me. With God guiding me, my mistakes are never a mistake. They are unanswered prayers in the form of learning experiences that helped me to keep on the path that I have chosen to be on.

Philosophically, I do not expect anyone to understand my point of view. In a study conducted in 2013 of almost 2,000 philosophers, 72.8% of them claim to be atheist when asked about God, yet when asked about freewill, 59.1% adhere to compatibilism freewill. (Gonzalez, Robbie) Oddly enough, some of the most influential philosophers of the past were among the strongest believers in God’s existence. These philosophers include Kant and Hegel. (Gray, James W., Wallace, Robert.)

Kant believes that “we have freewill if practical reason can determine our actions” and that “God is a metaphor for the ability for our moral goals to succeed.” (Gray, James W.) Hegel on the other hand believes that “If there is a higher degree of reality that goes with being self-determining (and thus real as oneself), and if we ourselves do in fact achieve greater self-determination at some times than we achieve at other times, then it seems that we’re familiar in our own experience with some of the higher degree of reality that we associate with God.” (Wallace, Robert)

 

I do not necessary believe that neither man is wrong in their thoughts, nor do not 100% align my views with either. Kant’s and my ideas of freewill differ in the aspect that I do not believe that there needs to be a practical reasoning behind everything. I believe that some things just happen without an explanation, which is why I align more with Hegel’s thoughts of God.

No matter what your view is of faith, freewill, or religion, we all have the right to believe what we want and to understand situations in whatever way we feel necessary. I believe that God was the creator of all human and animal life and only by choosing God’s path, will you truly be able to surpass your rights to freewill.

Works Cited

Aitken, Robert. The Holy Bible. American Bible Society ed. New York: Arno, 1968. Print.

Gray, James W. "Kant's Argument for Faith in God." Ethical Realism. Wordpress, 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.

Gonzalez, Robbie. "What Percentage of Philosophers Believe in God?" Io9: We Come From the Future. 30 Apr. 2013. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.

Wallace, Robert. "Hegel’s God." Hegel’s God. Philosophy Now, 2011. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.