Free Will

We have a "nutty professor" up here in the central part of NH. A lot of time, not a lot of respect flows from him. Just thought I’d let him chew on this, as even the "little people" deserve as much, if not more, than the "important people".

Life is all about "Free will", which I call one of God's gifts.

Using the animal kingdom as an example, the species were formed in such away as to have to prey on other, more vulnerable creatures in order tosurvive. Big fish eat little fish. Lions and Tigers eat Wildebeests. Thestrongest survive because they get more of the creatures to eat. They alsosurvive because their birth rates are geared to meeting those needs. Fishspawn with thousand and thousands of roe, that turn into fry, that turn intofish, that become meals for bigger fish. The more wily, and luckier smallfish survive and then they become the predators who eat the small fish.Lions don't spawn but they do have multiple births. Often papa lion willkill the male cubs because he doesn't want future competition, and becauseit is the mama lions who go out and get his next meal for him. You can fillin the rest of the animal kingdom, it's almost all the same.

What does all that have to do with "Free will"?

Imagine, if instead of free will, we were all made exactly equal. Everyonewas a smart and as ambitious as everyone else. We were all equally strongand no one had an advantage. Without free will, how would we survive? Wouldwe be like the fish?, the lions?, or some other creature?, where, for oursurvival, we had to do the other person in. If we don't have "Free will" andwe're all "equal", who is going to plant and harvest the garden? Who isgoing to mine the coal or drill for oil or water? Who is going to work atthe grocery store or the service station? Who is going to mow the lawn ortake out the trash? And, oops, who is going to pick up the trash? Who isgoing to humble himself for the benefit of his equals, because then he wouldnot be "equal".

"Free will" is a gift because it lets man, for the most part, determine hisposition in the food chain - not to be eaten by others, but to survive asbest he can. In some societies, tribal "war lords" prevail because they'rethe meanest and the toughest. In more civilized societies, a person's mentalcapacity, education, ambition, willingness to take a risk, etc., determinestheir ability to earn a living; where he or she will fit in the human foodchain.

Bill Gates is the paradigm on how to get to the top of the food chain. Or ishe? For his personal values, he exercised his free will to achieve hiscontributions to the world (which I believe are even greater than hisaccumulated wealth), and to satisfy his appetite. You, I assume, used yourability to achieve what would satisfy your personal appetite. I know that Idid. The achievements one attains do not confer lack of achievement onanother. It is "free will" that is exercised by that other person thatdetermines their achievement. The fact that Bill Gates became the wealthiestman in the world does not diminish the automobile mechanic, or thedishwasher in a restaurant, or any other relatively unsophisticated humanbeing. In fact, look at the most important job in a restaurant. Is it theowner, the waiter, the sous chef, the chef, the waiter, the hostess, thecashier. It is none of the above -- it is the dishwasher. Just envision whatwould happen if you went into a diner or an elegant restaurant and wereserved your meal on "used", unclean dishware, glasses, and silverware. Wouldyou eat the food? Would you go back to that diner or restaurant? No matterhow tasty and nourishing the food might be, no matter how reasonable theprice, no matter how attentive the waiter, you would leave. Why? Because themost important, and the most menial job wasn't done well. In man's versionof the animal food chain, all jobs have a value and, hopefully, bringsatisfaction to the doer of that job and pleasure to those who arebeneficiaries of that labor.

Before going to a class reunion of some many decades, I reread my yearbookin the what do you want to be when you grow up section. One of my classmateswanted to be a Teacher. Another a Physician. Another a Gas StationAttendant. I, a Businessman. We all had a vision of what we wanted. None ofus had a more noble selection that the other.

Our job is not to muck up the food chain. Not only can't we all be BillGates, for any number of reasons we don't want to be. We may just want to bea dishwasher, the most important job in the restaurant.

God gave us "Free will". He knows better than we what we need.