What is freedom? Does freedom exist?

It is worthwhile to distinguish freedom from political liberty.

Freedom is that quality given to us by God to make free choices, opting, in the ultimate test, to love God or to reject his overtures for eternal life. Unlike any other creature, we have the capacity to direct ourselves, overruling habit or passion or instinct. We have executive control over our own thoughts and behavior.

Liberty, in contrast, is the right endowed by God to speak and write freely, to worship God or not, to live where we please, have children as we please, and to rule ourselves through free democratic action. Though God endows liberty, government may or may not secure liberty. As the Declaration of Independence says, it is our right and our duty to correct any government that fails in its basic responsibility to secure the rights to life and liberty for its citizens.

Cheers,

Bruce

Certainly freedom exists. but there are varying degrees of freedom.

For most freedom consists of being able to live in reasonably comfortable arrangements, in jobs that many times comprise activities that are either easy or sometimes even engaging to them.

There is however freedom represented by wealth, given a significantly higher amount of wealth than is usually available, you achieve a higher level of freedom, to go where you want, when you want, at your own discretion.

That is freedom of a kind most people simply do not have.

But there is an over-riding freedom , that of the freedom of the mind to conceive of and execute on some ideal or to be even fully informed of the various alternative conditions which are available to experience.

So one could choose to live as a mendicant monk upon a hill, and experience as much mental freedom as some over-sexed, over-privileged hedonist.

This type of freedom is FAR FAR more - fair - in that it's available to anyone who can read, because knowledge and wisdom are eminently trainable / learn-able skills.

In this way, anyone can have far more "freedom" than say Paris Hilton, who - while being fabulously wealthy by our general standards, divides her time up almost like a some adult cartoon character for the most part, over-sexed, over-partied and over-privileged.

Without any forethought beyond the next ambitious id-driven impulse and certainly no serious responsibility for her lifestyle or concept of how difficult it might be to actually try to accomplish some objectively meaningful goal in life save perhaps Chihuahua husbandry.

Freedom is defined in many ways, okay?

Freedom can be a state of mind, it can be being able to do whatever you want, it can be something that everyone wants to reach out for to get to your dream, it's something that's misused for the wrong reasons, it can be an illusion, its a thing that has no control,it's something that can be able to allow peace...or anarchy. o.o

And what do you think of when a bird flies and a horse runs a wide open plain with no bounds? Or when the black slaves were free from their turmoil and the end of a war? Freedom can be the sky and the distance with no bounds,cages,and chains.

freedom would be all living creatures free to do what makes them happy without fear.

cows would graze.

horses would run.

No religion.

No killing.

No goddamn system to watch over everyone and inflict pain unto those who go their own way.

Acceptance. Respect.

That would be freedom.

The laws of Heaven and this hell are different. Abide by those where you are operating. (when in Rome do as the romans do), or suffer the consequenceses

freedom sipmply does not exist, u cant be free like the wind or the birds....

In my opinion, it's being able to do whatever you want to without consequences.