CARP Talk - Man vs. God: Freedom and Responsibility

UK CARP held their third ‘CARP Talk’ of 2015, given by CARP member physics student, studying at Kings College London, Amy Brown. One of CARP’s key principles is to develop genuine relationships between individuals, families, and friends to naturally create a peaceful society. Building on previous CARP Talks, Amy introduced the idea of happiness to be a universal pursuit, as said by Aristotle centuries ago. Amy relayed that “this universal commonality” is something that we all share. This desire to be happy fundamentally influences our life choices - such as, the choice to eat a chocolate biscuit or go on a diet or even the choice to go to university and to learn in order to be successful and attain greater happiness. Amy then introduced God’s position to be likened to that of a creator- a being who ultimately desires happiness. God desires to be happy, resulting in the creation of the universe. Amy explained that God wanted to build a relationship with us resembling that of a parent child relationship. Amy went on to say that the parent child relationship is unchanging and the most powerful relationship known to man. Therefore it has the potential to bring us the most happiness.

So what do we need to attain happiness? Amy illustrated this point, by explaining that Love is a strong force that creates an unchangeable bond at the centre of parent-child relationships. Love should be at the centre of this relationship, so it must be “freely given… love requires freedom”. Amy explained that the purpose of freedom is to allow us to make choices with good outcomes. However, the results of our decisions will only have significance “if we can take responsibility for that outcome” - allowing us to exercise or own freedom. Amy illustrated this with the example of her taking responsibility for her decision to study physics at university. By exercising her freedom to study, she can now pursue her own happiness in her studies. Therefore freedom cannot exist without responsibility. “It’s an all package deal”.

The famous saying goes “with great power comes great responsibility” (Spider- man). Amy proposed that the reverse is also true - “with great responsibility comes great power”, creativity and the ‘Right of ownership’. The creator and owner of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has had a lot of success because he took responsibility for his choices and creativity.

Amy stated that if God were responsible for everything, we would not have freedom, responsibility, the right of ownership or creativity - thus contradicting His original purpose for creating human beings. Amy then shared her personal experience with her father during her teenage years. Amy shared that she had difficulty understanding her fathers’ choices and actions, so distanced herself from him. This resulted in a disconnection in their relationship. A few years later she went abroad and experienced deep loneliness with the people around her. She made the decision to call her father even though it was challenging to express herself, however, to her surprise, she was so comforted by the loving and simple words that her father expressed to her: “Don’t worry, when you get back we’ll celebrate!” From this Amy realised that she is her parent’s child and they love her deeply. It allowed her to realise that we can always take responsibility and be embraced by others, fully.

Amy concluded that we can do the same for God and we should ask ourselves “how often do I put God in that situation?” Man turned their backs on God first so we must be responsible to turn back and face God who wants to love us while restoring and building genuine, happy relationships.