On Being Free

Why are small children (and sometimes not-so-small children) commonly afraid of the dark? What's scary about darkness? Have you ever noticed how strange this is? Really, there is nothing about the dark that should inspire fear. A tiger is scary, because it can kill you. A falling boulder is scary, because it can also kill you. Darkness, however, doesn't even have deadly potential.

I think that the reason is simply that we can't see in the dark. If we could see, the darkness wouldn't be scary. If we were like owls, however, and became blind in the light instead, I imagine that the daytime would be scary.

If we can't see, we have no control of anything around us. I think that humans are instinctively afraid of anything we can't control. The things that control us, therefore, are hated and feared universally. That's why freedom is so longed for by our species, and also why control of others is such a powerful desire.

However, we also have a problem. Along with the instinctive fear of being enslaved, we also seem to have an instinctive feeling of enslavement. Look at all the religions that have formed over the last few thousand years. All of them have a common thread: something powerful exists in a realm not quite visible, and it has the power to control us.

This is seen in all religions, major and minor. The aborigines of Australia belief in several types of spirits, which control every aspect of their lives. Hindus believe in hundreds of gods, all of which must be kept happy at all times. Even Buddhism, an atheistic religion, contains this thread. They believe that freedom comes from breaking out of the cycle of death and rebirth and death and rebirth and death and rebirth and so on.

There is only one religion which offers freedom. This is Christianity. However, Christianity offers freedom in a most unusual way: by becoming a slave.

Numerous times, Jesus refers to us as becoming slaves of God. Nearly every New Testament author makes the same reference. This, also, is how we become free. So maybe, freedom is not what we think it is. Maybe what we feel isn't a lack of freedom, but a lack of function. Instead of being free, what we need is to be part of something else.

Freedom, this means, is not what we think. Real freedom is control by something ultimately stronger than we are. This is an interesting paradox. I hope you thought so too.

Goodbye, valiant reader,
Mitchell