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To: Forest Keeper; jo kus
That lens of yours appears to be exhaustively constricting. [...] That isn't freedom at all.

Allow me a small philosophical aside. The opposite of constraint is not freedom, but rather slavery. The guarantee of political freedom is political law, and the guarantee of metaphysical freedom is Divine Law. The law is a constraint. Remove that, and the bigger gun wins, and you are a slave. For example, Do not kill gives you certain freedom,-- to stay alive in the company of men who dislike you, or want your labor. But it is a constraint.

Likewise thare are laws of exegesis: it has to be true to the historical and linguistic context, agree with the patristic consensus, take into account who speaks to whom and in what rhetorical style, etc. Violating those does not give you freedom, just like violating the Ten Commandments does not give you freedom.

3,965 posted on 03/23/2006 11:47:07 AM PST by annalex
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To: annalex
Likewise there are laws of exegesis: it has to be true to the historical and linguistic context, agree with the patristic consensus, take into account who speaks to whom and in what rhetorical style, etc. Violating those does not give you freedom, just like violating the Ten Commandments does not give you freedom.

Believe me, I am not anti-law. :) Yes, we need some constraints to ensure our freedom. But, as with a repressive government, it can go too far. That's why I can't see the opposite of constraint as being slavery. On a "freedom" scale, I would think that they would not be equally apart from zero. Some constraint would be on the freedom side, but full constraint would be at the very end of the slavery side.

4,096 posted on 03/27/2006 1:15:11 PM PST by Forest Keeper
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