There is a constant struggle in every man’s heart between what he does and what he knows he should do. Freud and the Apostle Paul wrote about this conflict in the following famous passages:
Thus the ego, driven by the id, confined by the super-ego, repulsed by reality, struggles to master its economic task of bringing about harmony among the forces and influences working in and upon it; and we can understand how it is that so often we cannot suppress a cry: ‘Life is not easy!’ If the ego is obliged to admit its weakness, it breaks out in anxiety – realistic anxiety regarding the external world, moral anxiety regarding the super-ego and neurotic anxiety regarding the strength of the passions in the id.1
Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?2
Arch-atheist and Christian saint agree about at least two things: A war rages within every human and the conflict sometimes makes us very miserable indeed.
The existence of this conflict presents a very difficult (indeed insurmountable) conundrum for materialists, who insist that a person consists of his physical body and nothing else. But if that is true, how can there be a conflict? How can the body be at war with itself? Doesn’t a war require two opposing sides? Freud can describe the conflict, but he can’t even begin to account for its existence given his metaphysical commitments.
Christianity has no such problem. As Paul taught in the wider context of the passage quoted above, all men have an immaterial spirit (which he sometimes called the “heart”), and the essential requirements of morality “are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.”3
Freud’s metaphysics rendered him blind to the cause of the war that raged in his own breast. And since he was blind to the reason the war raged, he was powerless to offer any effective solution to the war. Not so for Paul. He understood the underlying cause of the conflict that raged within, and he also understood how he could be free. God has provided a way out through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which allowed Paul to answer his own question.
Q. “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”
A. “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”4
Which brings me back to the question posed in the title to this post. Are we free? It turns out the answer is neither “yes” nor “no,” but “if you are not you can be.” We can be free but not all of us are. Some people are slaves to their fallen nature. But it need not be so. There is a path from slavery into freedom, but no one is ever forced to walk down that path. It must be chosen.
______________________
1“LECTURE XXXI: The Dissection of the Psychical Personality” Freud, Sigmund. New Introductory Lectures on Psycho Analysis. The Standard Edition. 1933. Trans. and ed. James Strachey. New York: W.W. Norton, 1965, 97-98.
2The Apostle Paul, Romans 7:21-24.
3Romans 2:15.
4Romans 8:2.
Auto-immune disease?
The most common problem afflicting the West today is sexual immorality. Sex outside of marriage was condemned in the past but today, it’s thrown onto TV programs like it’s no big deal.
1 Corinthians 6:18
“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”
Addictions to porn, to masturbation, to sex outside of marriage. To prostitutes (NOT sex workers).
That is slavery. Pray to God to deliver you.
One of my college buddies had a great motto: life is not easy, but easy enough…..
Relatd/2
Sex outside marriage is immoral? How many wives/concubines did David or Solomon have? Were they sanctioned in any way by God for this behavior? If He wasn’t/isn’t bothered, why should you?
Addictions can be unhealthy but I would say not immoral unless they are causing others harm.
Into slavery to Him?
Sev so where do you get your standards from , you speak about moral an immoral ,causing and not causing others harm , but what is your basis for deciding what these things are. This is an honest question ,as speaking for myself how much pain and suffering am I willing to endure to see that the right thing is done, and that is the crux of the matter. We all say do no harm do no wrong, but have the annoying habit of making sure we are looked after first ,and then if convenient do no harm or wrong.
So what is your standard , where does it come from and what price are you willing to pay to keep it.
Sev appeals to a variation of the golden rule when he states, “I would say not immoral unless they are causing others harm.”
A couple of small problems for Seversky in his appeal to the Golden Rule. Number one, it is foundational to Christian ethics,
And, number two, it is antithetical to his foundation of Darwin ethics,
Thus, so much for Seversky being consistent in his application of morality.
That Seversky is being highly hypocritical in the application of the Christian ethic of causing no harm to others is clearly reflected in his recent militant, and fairly passionate, defense of unrestricted abortion where he advocated for packing the Supreme Court and issued a not too veiled threat of violence against conservatives
– see kairosfocus’s thread on Roe v. Wade, post 17 and 65
https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/developing-the-us-supreme-court-reverses-roe-v-wade-is-it-cry-havoc/#comment-759106
Besides abortion being in direct contradiction to the supposed ‘science’ of Natural Selection,
, besides that little detail of abortion being out of scientific step with Darwinism, abortion is also literally a psychopath’s dream of causing harm to millions of others,
If a psychopath did to a child what the abortion industry routinely does to unborn children, the psychopath would be sentenced to death, and/or life in prison, and the vast majority of people would agree wholeheartedly with that punishment.
Thus Seversky, especially when he is trying to undermine Judeo-Christian ethics, may rhetorically claim that he is all for not causing harm to others, (i.e. have sex with whomever you want as long as it is not harming others), but his stance on abortion makes it clear that he really could care less when it comes to causing no harm to others. In short, Seversky is a raging hypocrite with it comes to applying the golden rule consistently.
BTW, what’s the difference between an “arch-atheist” and a common, everyday atheist?
Seversky at 4,
If you don’t believe in God, why blame Him for anything? Yes, sexual immorality is immoral. It’s wrong. It’s bad.
Scoliosis?
JHolo
LOL
“what’s the difference between an “arch-atheist” and a common, everyday atheist?”
The first is supermega-dumb and the second is just plain stupid. 😉
Andrew