toldailytopic: Safety or freedom: which do you value more?

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elohiym

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God could step in at every moment and prevent us from falling or prevent us from hurting one another but He doesn't. Why not?

You are assuming he doesn't.

The Spirit of God is what animates us all according the Bible.
 

Ktoyou

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Freedom is a vague concept; with it, one may attain power and afford greater protection and security. By what political system would freedom, as a concept, affect wealth distribution?

In Russia, following the collapse of the USSR, wealth has become spectacularly concentrated; inequality there is dramatically higher than in any country in the west. The model would suggest that both the increased volatility of investment and lack of opportunities for wealth redistribution might be at work. In the social vacuum created by the end of the Soviet era,

For the Soviets, those in power had the wealth because they were free to take it. See also Gini coefficient.

Safety is another concept, one is more safe when one avoids danger often associated with freedom, yet when compared with freedom, it might be better to examine security?
 

Nick M

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I'd disagree. Totalitarian regimes tend to have low crime rates.

We know your brain only works with electrical shock first, but to say Stalin had no crime, and discounting the 20 million murders the State commited as no crime is incorrect.

Big government that murders and steals, and authorizes as such has the highest crime by its very definition.
 

Squishes

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I care about my interests, not freedom or safety per se. If I were able to pursue my interests, then I'd sacrifice both freedom and safety.
 

Sherman

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When Freedom is applied under Godly government then safety is a natural result. Safety first is putting the cart before the horse.

Freedom also has another benefit that adds to safety, the keeping and bearing of arms so that citizens can defend themselves from intruders.

Rapist enters a home. Click click Bang! no more scumbag rapist. End of story.

Freedom to bear arms solves a lot of problems.

Now if we went the Safety First route--well Hitler did that and took all the arms from the Jews and other citizens. History tells us what the result of that was.

'Safety' can use used as an excuse to regulate what we do, how we sleep and play. It results in too much regulation.

Bottom line, I'll take Freedom.
 

Newman

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The two aren't mutually exclusive nor essentially a part of some tradeoff. We don't have to sacrifice safety for more freedom or sacrifice freedom for more safety. In fact, the opposite usually holds true: more freedom equals more safety - less freedom equals less safety.
 

Nydhogg

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Freedom IS safety.

We can become capable of defending ourselves. It's easier to fend off goblins than an abusive government.
 

Zeke

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No. I think we lean toward freedom and skirt the edges of the unsafe. Sometimes we fall off. Sometimes we smother. It's a work in progress.


Yeah, but in the hands of the wrong person that's just a recipe for a very nasty jungle.


Except that freedom came and comes with a host of laws/restrictions and suggestions. Those all go to our betterment, which can be viewed as the ultimate safety concern as well.


I'll differ with that interpretation and suggest He doesn't because without our ability to make choices our relation would be illusory. That is, if God desires an object upon which to express His nature and part of that nature is love, we're rather what you have to have in play.


Thou shalt not murder...covet...what you do for the least of these...I don't know, Knight. To my mind He seemed and seems mostly concerned (after the matter of salvation) with how we treat one another. The use of freedom to harm is disobedient and contrary to the mercy He extends and extols in practice. So I'd say at best its a wash, that freedom isn't more valued, only integral to being; and that safety, which carries with it our happiness in form and function, is at least the equal of that necessary methodology.

Goverments born under the banner of freedom in most cases is an illusion that always ends up taking a downward spiral into fascism. The other illusion is that it will become better from within.
 

No Sheep Here

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The TheologyOnline.com TOPIC OF THE DAY for January 6th, 2011 10:50 AM


toldailytopic: Safety or freedom: which do you value more?






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You can't take one without the other. How can someone be free if they don't feel safe? Fear equals bondage; I wouldn't call mental handcuffs freedom, so I value freedom and safety equally.
 

Nathon Detroit

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You can't take one without the other. How can someone be free if they don't feel safe? To be concerned is to be bound.
The question isn't one or the other (have freedom, or have safety, but not both). Instead the question is... which ability to you value more than the other: safety or freedom? (and why)
 

No Sheep Here

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The question isn't one or the other (have freedom, or have safety, but not both). Instead the question is... which ability to you value more than the other: safety or freedom? (and why)
Ouch, Knight's putting me in the hot seat and raising the temp. I have to choose... If I have to choose, then I'd have to say I value freedom more. I'd rather be free to do as I like and say as I like, because it's the best part of the human experience IMO. This way I can be free to address my safety concerns also :wink:

Sorry, had to find a way to have my cake and eat it too Knight ;)
 

Town Heretic

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Goverments born under the banner of freedom in most cases is an illusion that always ends up taking a downward spiral into fascism. The other illusion is that it will become better from within.

I don't see governments as being founded to promote freedom so much as to establish and protect right. In our case, the social compact has a built in revolution button sans bloodshed. The problem is that to use it we have to be informed and active participants in the life of our nation instead of occasional protesters and semi professional malcontents.
 

Ktoyou

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The question isn't one or the other (have freedom, or have safety, but not both). Instead the question is... which ability to you value more than the other: safety or freedom? (and why)

Well, OK then, I will pick safety, as it seems a singular definable construct, while freedom is nebulous.
 

kmoney

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I'm not really following the people who say that safety comes with freedom. OK, so you can defend yourself, but that is just one part of it.

And when I saw this topic I thought of the whole "War on Terror" thing and giving up freedoms to be safe from terrorists.
 
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