> People should determine what freedom really is...If some people want
> to live in a world of chaos, murder and psychotic mindframes, then
> so be it.
That seems to be the real core of the religious argument: what is freedom, anyway? If you ask me, freedom /is/ chaos. Freedom is dangerous. Freedom is a bitch. Freedom is constant vigilance. The simple reality is that there are dangerous psychopaths in the world, and since they don't all have convenient labels ("Poor Impulse Control"), giving ourselves freedom means giving it to them as well. Until we catch them abusing it, that means watching your back.
If you want ease, and safety, and the ability to walk the streets of your neighborhood without risking your life, then you're not interested in freedom, you want security. People will use words like "freedom from harm", "freedom from want", etc., but they've really co-opted the word for a very simple concept and used it to mean something else entirely.
Freedom means being able to use your own talents to accomplish your own desires, not the expectation that anyone else is going to make it easy for you.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC