Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

In their hearts humans plan their course,
    but the Lord establishes their steps.

• Proverbs 16:9

“Born in Algeria, the French Marxist scholar Louis Althusser argued that there is a radical difference between Marx’s early writings and the ‘scientific’ period of Capital (Das Kapital) The early works of Marx reflect the times with their focus on Hegelian concepts such as alienation, whereas in the mature work, history is seen as having its own momentum, independent of the intentions and actions of human agents. Therefore Althusser’s claim that we are determined by the structural conditions of society involves the controversial rejection of human autonomy, denying individual agency a role in history.”

• Sam Atkinson (senior editor), The Philosophy Book, Big Ideas Simply Explained

Louis Althusser (1918-1990) was a French Marxist philosopher.  His life was marked by moments of mental illness.  He strangled his wife to death in 1980, and was deemed unfit to stand trial.  He was released from the mental institution three years later, but never went back to his philosophical studies.

When I read this short bio in the Directory section of the book, it got me thinking about the argument of free will.  People who are not Christian might not think about free will, or are totally obsessed with it.  Being a Marxist, he probably was an atheist, that is if he were a “good Marxist,” meaning not inconsistent.  That could have led to the mental issues, but that could start a debate, since some people do have chemical imbalances.

But let’s start with the National Institute of Health definition of human autonomy:  the capacity to think, decide, and act freely and independently on the basis of such thought and decisions

Althusser might have a point.  Of course, if you are mentally ill, you might have diminished capacity to do just about any of this definition.  But most of us have the capacity to think (although that is eroding rapidly, partly due to people with Marxist leanings) and decide (although some people have a type of temperament where they feel uncomfortable making a decision, since there could be more data out there).

The rub comes in acting freely and independently.  Those same left-wing thinkers want to remove our freedom of speech…  Oh, I was not in alignment with their thinking.  They allow freedom of speech but if you disagree with their views you are cancelled, ghosted, or silenced.  Thus, they want to abolish our freedom of speech.  Freedom of speech is not a freedom unless we can disagree.

But can we freely act upon our ideas?  To Althusser’s credit, we have never had that in the purest sense.  Laws establish boundaries and exceeding those boundaries means that you pay the penalty.  He killed his wife and essentially got away with it.  At least three years in a hospital getting therapy is not doing hard time or sitting on death row.  But he crossed one of those boundaries.  Those boundaries have been there since Cain killed his brother Abel.

And as for the freedom of speech, there have been comedians punished for their blue comedy, although it all turned blue there for a while.  And people have lost their jobs for talking bad about the company they work for.  I remember one person who told a customer that our company had violated a confidentiality agreement that we had with that particular customer.  We had proof that he was wrong, but the damage was done.  He had to go. And these days, many countries have instituted laws against hate speech – which in many cases is disagreeing with the wrong person.

But within those boundaries, established by the government, we should have human autonomy.

Then there is the social aspect of human autonomy.  Getting back to freedom of speech, you can say bad things about someone.  Slander is when you defame someone, but what if what you say is true.  Since time immemorial, the defamed person might just punch you in the mouth.

But what about free will.  We all have free will, but God has His plan and one way or another, God’s plan will be done.  I have heard many pastors explain it that our free will can get in the way of God’s plan, but God has alternate plans, so that His overall sovereignty remains intact.  We performed poorly, but there was a plan B.  There have been other explanations.

But one of my best friends grew up Catholic and became a Presbyterian.  He got hot under the collar with me one day and asked me to explain how God could have predestined me to be a Christian and still allowed me free will.

I said that my explanation only applies to me.  I do not know how God managed it with the rest of the elect.  But I was convicted of my sins by the Holy Spirit.  I fought the total surrender to God for over a year, until I felt that I would either go insane or I would surrender to God.  I did the latter, actually saying out loud, “I give up, God.  Do with me as you see fit, but I cannot go on like this any longer.”

Under my argument, there was still the decision of staying on my course or rough seas, until the boat tipped over and I was gone.

But that was me.  As Newman said, “We are all rebels who must lay down our arms.”  Other people might have other experiences, but God knows His own, and as Jesus said, in return, the sheep know the Good Shepherd.  Somehow that works and we freely make that decision.  And conversely, all who go to Hell, get there willingly on their own effort.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.