Human Nature and Human Destiny - Essay Example

Christianity and Free will Explain how the intellect and the will show humans have a tendency to go beyond what humans can grasp. Religion or faith is commonly used to portray a powerful source or creator of the universe. It inculcates the theories of morality, religious laws and ethics and is based upon certain symbols or doctrines which relate humanity and their values and beliefs. Religion cannot be forced upon anyone, it is instilled from within. Human beings are the most rational beings with superior intellect and will.

However, every human is curious to know how the universe got created, who controls the universe, how did man first come into being. Answers to these cannot be derived from any number of scientific experiments, theories or inventions. These are the questions that lead a man of high intellect to go beyond regular boundaries of knowledge and seek answers. That the world was created by some unexplainable power, makes the intellect and will of the humans go beyond to ascertain how things came into being and who or what that “Supreme Power” is.

Genesis 1:27 reads, "So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Imperato, 2009)  He went on to create man with intellect, emotions and free will. These factors set us apart from any other living organism in the universe (Mendelson, 2010). For e.g. animals function the same way as they have ever since their inception, without much of change in their behavioural pattern. Man on the other hand is known to resist conventionality and is always recreating, discovering, inventing and thinking ahead.

While many do not confirm to any religion, they have been unable to resist seeking answers to the above. They have pushed their intellect and will in their quest to pursue the unexplainable. Free-will as related to Christian anthropology and the Christian understanding of God Christian anthropology is defined as the study of humanity and how it relates to divinity. It believes that a human being is constituted of spirit, body and soul and it tries to study the relationship between these elements.

According to them, God created man with three intrinsic elements- intellect, free will and feelings (Berge, 2009). The concept of free will has been under debate for a very long time. If we are supposed to follow our free will then, would all our actions necessarily be for the good of the society and self. Should one follow the creator blindly or should the individual have the right to choose? Will the creator get annoyed if one does not visit the church on a particular Sunday? It has been a dilemma and Christian theology has offered various options to this but no rigid solutions were found so far.

Free will is the ability to think and act upon the particular thought, however, if the actions are constrained then we really are not acting upon our free will. Most of the Christian thoughts state that whatever choices humans make were already pre-determined by God (Albl, 2009). It also states that humans can have free will over what is correct politically and socially but they do not have any rights on the spiritual correctness. One of the Christian schools of thoughts states that God has gifted humans with morality and free will, so proper implementation of the free will can only bring the individual closer to God.

It is believed that God has foreseen every action and its consequences, yet has blessed humans with free will. While He has given man the choice to decide, He has ensured that man does not misuse the powers, hence the restrictions are necessary.However, the debate continues. Works Cited Mendelson, Michael, "Saint Augustine", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Web. 2010. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/augustine Albl, M.C. 2009.Reason, Faith, and Tradition: Explorations in Catholic Theology. Print. Saint Mary's Press.

Imperato, R.Christian Footings: Creation, World Religions, Personalism, Revelation, and Jesus. University Press of America. 2009. Print. Berge .G.V. Free Will in Christianity - Where is It? Web. 2009 http://EzineArticles.com/2954013