Saturday 

Six Articles of Faith

Philosophers have spent years trying to work out what they think about Free Will. Fortunately my audience weren't philosophers, as I only had a minute to consider it.

Pick a card says the conjurer, pick a lottery number, choose an item off the supermarket shelf, vote for the party of your choice. Decisions, decisions, decisions, we're taking them all the time. From the trivial to the crucial, we exercise our power of choice, and have to live with the results. It can be a terrible burden.

Animals don't seem to have this problem, deciding which direction to wander off in, or which blade of grass to munch. It's a very human thing. Animals of their nature follow the will of their Creator. Of course, they can have a preference for the smell and taste of a certain food, much as we might do, but we have a range of choices of which they know nothing, in which we are given a glimpse of Divine freedom.

Moral decisions, the choice between good and bad is what distinguishes mankind from the animals. It's that gift we are given as our birthright, the right to choose, for which we should be thankful.