There's a difference. ;-)
Unlike many Christians (in fact, that can be expanded to "religious people") who I feel should know better, I recognize that belief and knowledge are two separate things, and that that which I believe today could indeed be proven wrong tomorrow.
When I say I "try to follow a behavior of faith + works," I do this because I've found that it works best to keep me in a spiritual place I'm comfortable with, reconciling what I've seen with what people have tried at various times to indoctrinate me with.
I do not, however, "condemn" those who do not believe in the same God or any God at all - it would not be my place to do so, not being God, and all - and I personally don't believe God necessarily condemns them, either. There are, for example, still now - and certainly were for many hundreds of years - people who have never heard of Christ. I've never believed God would cut off a group of people through simple non-exposure.
There are other ideosyncracies, but they probably don't really fall within the scope of this discussion. As for my own "free will", I certainly feel that I have it, as I try to do the right thing (for reasons non-religious as well as religious) but believe no horrible fate awaits me if I screw up. Sure, that logically rules out the "horribly evil person who kicks every kitten and steals babies' candy" route, but I would have ruled that out for myself anyhow.
Would limiting myself that way constitute a loss of free will? If it would, you seem to imply that merely having a strong set of ethics would take away a person's free will. |
