Free will is no illusion, but a self evident reality. I recall sitting in philosophy class several years back listening to an account on free will. The teacher said there is no free will it is an illusion. This seemed no more absurd than other statement I have heard miscellaneous college teachers state such as sex is an involuntary reflex and there is no absolute truth. Absurdities I thought to myself. I thought I should get up right now and run around the room screaming and making a fool of myself. Why? So when the teacher asked what I was doing I could reply testing to make sure I still have free will. To the fundamentalist who believe our nature is sin. Wrong sin is a result of our nature. If sin was our very nature murder and theft would be praised while charity and goodwill would be outlawed. Free will is our very nature. We wanted it and God gave it to us for our insistence upon free will is what led to the fall of spirit into matter. I will not go into that fall now for the purpose of this topic is free will. In a universe governed by unalterable and immutable laws have people free will, and, if so how much? It is true that all which happens to people is in accordance with law, as there is no such thing as chance or accident; every event is adamently linked to a preceding cause and a subsequent effect. But to say that people are void of volition and a puppet in the hands of a higher power is contrary to logic and contradictory to Divine Nature. It is debasing the Great Spirit to think that we are enmeshed in the web of life, futiley trying to extricate ourselves like flies entanlged in a spider’s web. This implies that our efforts for progression and advancement are amusing to God. Such a concept makes of God a lower creature than the human, for no loving earthly mother or father would hold his/her children in bondage if he/she had the power to free them. Then, since we have free will, what is its extent and scope? Is it relative or absolute? The freedom of the will is real, although it is also relative and conditioned. People are surrounded by necessity, but are still free to choose. In other words, people are both bound and free. We are bound by inheritance, environmental limitations, physical constitution, habits, prejudices, ignorance and transgression of man-made and spiritual laws. We also inherited a brain having a certain anatomical structure, and physiological aptitude and quality. In childhood and youth we have an environment not of our choosing, the influence of parents, home and school surroundings and education when our nervous system is mst impressionable. Our nervous organizations and our personalities have been built by what we have inherited and what we have acquired from our environment. It is with this behid us, that when we arive at maturity, we have to use our brain in shaping any further course of action. Choice and free will we have, but with the instrument we have inherited and modified by early years. It is for this reason that environment, training, and education are so importent. The power to do however must not be confounded with the power to will. One is limited, the other is unlimited. We are conditioned by all the aforementioned, but principally by our karma, and the law of cause and effect. The operation of this law creates destiny, and destiny is fixed. It is not uncommon for people to find themselves in distasteful situations and painful predicaments from which they are utterly unable to free themselves. They rail and wail against their luck or fate, but neither mythical luck nor fickle fate is responsible for their plight for they have forged the chains that bind them. True, it may have been done in ignorance, but ignorance of the law excuses no one, whether on the physical, moral, mental, or spiritual planes. But, as we created our destiny, we can change it, and we have within ourselves all the necessary power to change our life and environment into one of our liking, but the change must come from within not without. Instead of attempting to change our environment we should change ourselves, and the environment will automatically respond. Moreover, their are certain fixed principles in life which we must obey, for these will ruthlessly discipline or destroy those who attempt to pit their will and strength against them. No one can, for example, violate the eternal verities of honesty, decency, love and brotherhood without paying the penalty. This applies to all natural laws. No amount of supplication, prayer or agony will change these laws one iota. Stick your hand in the fire and shout to the Almighty till your voice is gone, but your hand will still continue to burn. So it is with all natural laws. You violate these laws by starting certain causes; the effects will follow as surely and inevitably as the pain follows the burn on the hand. Karma is both immediate and remote. Many causes now obscure, were actually initiated prior to this earthly life and are exhausted here. Similarly, we are daily establishing other causes whose effect may not be apparent until we have passed over. Hence, the great importance of starting only those causes whose effects will be beneficial. For this is certain; whatever has been set in motion and whatever has been commenced must be finished. There is no cessation, suspension or modification of this law. By every thought, desire, wish and act we are creating future karma or destiny, either good or bad, from which we cannot escape. What is the will? Is it a primary or secondary urge? Will is the self in action. Wherever there is true volition, there the ego is expressing itself. The strong-willed person has achieved a sufficiently stable character that determines the issues of each conflict. His/her desires are classified and subordinated to purposes and ends upon which he/she has previously determined. The weak-willed individual is the slave of his/her desires and appetites and tries to satisfy them all, no matter how destructive and disastrous they may be. Though apparently we are all born with a fixed capacity of intelligence, which cannot be increased, it can, however, be trained or left untrained, but we need be under no fatalistic predetermination of character. That is the product of training, and later, of personal choice. Anybody except the outright imbecile or idiot, too stupid to profit by example, can be developed into a decent, normal, useful person. If one becomes a criminal instead, it is not because he/she was born so, but because he/she chose to be. Otherwise, why subject one to punishment? All systems of punishment are based on responsibility and accountability which, in turn, rest on the relative freedom of the will. All people realize that a plea of no free will would be a feeble defense in a court of justice, and a much weaker one before their conscience. Furthermore, people never deny responsibility in connection with their good deeds; only when their choice has been unwise or unethical do they attempt to disclaim accountability. One who from such derangement of intellect is incapable of distinguishing right from wrong is better to be committed to an institution where actions acn be governed as opposed to being in public where one can cause harm to others. Even children can tell right from wrong and know they have the ability to choose their course of conduct. When a little child breaks the neighbors window or pilfers from his/her mothers purse, his/her parents do not excuse him/her on the grounds that he/she has no free will, but instead, impress upon his/her mentality, or anatomy in some cases, that the consequences of such actions are painful. Later, nature teaches him/her that retribution is inevitable and a fundamental rule of life, and that transgression brings with it an absolutely set payment as basic as a burned hand when exposed to fire. " I do nor believe in free will, " you say. Well, the very fact that you are at liberty to believe it or reject it proves you have it. Otherwise, there would be no alternative. So long as we have the power to think we have the power to choose. Life is a succession of choices, and, when we do not like the consequences of our choices, blaming God is foolish and futile. Instead of wasting time in useless regret and vain excuses we should determine to be more careful now. If we have chosen unwisely in the past, we can today, through the exercise of our free will, put into operation causes whose effects will be beneficial in the future. Others contend that free will is impossible in a universe if immutable and changeless laws. It is only because of unvarying law that we can have free will at all. In a world of chance and accident, devoid of plan and purpose, we could nopt have one atom of choice. Because certain causes always produce certain effects is one able to predict with any degree of surety what the outcome of ones actions will be. Human affairs are subject, like the rest of the universe, to general laws and, in a large view of peoples activities, free will can be left out of account and necessity takes its place. Kant wrote "That the force of circumstances is too strong for free will, and that laws may be traced in the conduct of a mass of human beings, which are invisible in the individual." The Great Spirit has a plan and purpose to which all created things are subject. Some assume that, because God is omniscient and knows what people will do, there is no possibility of free will. Gods omniscience does not preclude our exercise of choice any more than children are deprived of freedom because their parents usually know quite well how they will react under different circumstances. This is certain, if only Gods will prevailed on earth, it would be paradise, but with peoples exercise of their will began the existence of evil. The peoples perverted use of this force has brought into the world suffering. sorrow, misery, disease, war, pestilence, and all manner of ungodly conditions, and these creations of our volition will exist as long as we persist in blindly pursuing our erring ways. No perspicacity is required to realize that absolute free will without absolute wisdom would be an unmitigated curse; the worst conceivable calamity which God could impose upon us. When we consider what we in our ignorance have done with limited will and power, just the thought of what would happen had we absolute free will fills one with apprehension and terror, but God is merciful, and through infinite love and wisdom, limits our freedom of action. As we grow in spiritual stature, we gradually see the folly of indepentdent action and submit to Divine guidance, and in relinquishing our will are directed by the influence of that higher wisdom and moulded and guided into the true path of happiness. "Where does free will function in times of war when one is compelled to fight?" Is a question on the lips of many. Free will is never entirely abrogated there is always an alternative. True, the alternative may be worse than the duty or responsibility one is trying to evade. Nevertheless, it is there. It often takes more courage to face public opinion than it does to face artillery. As the spirit is givern pure and undefiled, free from stain and error, it cannot ascend to the celestial abode until it shall have been refined and purified from all evil it has wrought and al errors and faults committed through its union with matter. When we return home we will have to give an account for we are rational beings endowed with free will and, therefore, are held accountable both here and hereafter. Peace be unto you all....