Church doesn’t allow free speech, let alone free will

THERE’S a thorny old problem in theology: free will versus determinism.

God, being God, knows all and sees all and, therefore, knows how each of us will act. God already knows how the stories of our lives will end.

Christianity teaches that we have free will, that we can choose eternal bliss or the fiery pits. But if God knows what we will choose, and God made us, then how is this a choice?

Many contorted and head-melting solutions have been forwarded to this conundrum, but none have eradicated the suspicion that we are little more than fleshy, pre-programmed robots. In these more secular times, science has bolstered this idea.

Nearly every day news stories claim all sorts of traits, including personality, might be genetically encoded.

Psychological studies have claimed that we make far fewer ‘choices’ than we think. We read particular newspapers to reinforce ideas we already have. If the people around us think a certain way, we tend to agree with them. We rarely change our minds, and, in public life, mind-changing is regarded as weak and disreputable. How often have you heard a politician admit to changing an opinion? Almost never, because we hate them for it when they do.

We like to think that marketing and advertising have no effect upon us, but they must or companies wouldn’t spend so much money on it.

Before the massive success of Fifty Shades of Grey, was there a thunderous clamour from female readers for books involving bondage and bottom-slapping? Or was the marketing and media fuss around it so intense that women felt they were missing something if they didn’t buy the book?

Given our propensity to be so easily influenced, other people have developed all sorts of skills in influencing us.

In the modern age, this is often wrapped up in marketing-speak to make it sound benign, and even good, for us poor consumers.

But the rich and powerful trying to get us to think they way they want is nothing new; it’s as old as history.

It makes imbeciles out of many of us, but, more dangerously, it serves to quash those rare individuals who produce original and unique ideas. This week, the Redemptorist priest, Father Tony Flannery, revealed that he is facing possible excommunication for expressing ideas not approved by the Vatican’s enforcement division, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. (The people who previously brought us the Inquisition).

They required him to sign a statement renouncing his opinions. He refused, and, as a result, can no longer operate as a priest. If you’re still pondering whether we have free will or not, you now know what the Catholic Church thinks.