Freedom and the Limits of Human Nature

One

Freedom for means, not ends

Our God-given free will, the freedom to choose, is a very precious gift.

It’s what makes us free to shape our own character, to choose our own destiny, to determine the kinds of persons we shall become.

And yet, says St. Thomas, our freedom to choose only pertains to a choice of means, not to a choice of the ends.

What does he mean by that?

He means that we are free to choose among different kinds of actions or strategies or external things to pursue. But we are not free to decide what our happiness, our flourishing, and our fulfillment consist of.

That has already been determined. And there is nothing we can do about it.

Two

Our nature and our purpose are unchangeable

A thing’s nature tells you what the thing is necessarily. A triangle has three sides – it necessarily has three sides. If it didn’t have three sides, it wouldn’t be a triangle. It would be something else.

The same applies to a thing’s purpose, which comes from its nature. The purpose of a lightbulb is to provide light. If it doesn’t do that, it’s not a good lightbulb. Plain and simple.

Now we human beings have a definite nature. And with that nature comes a definite purpose. We are what we are by necessity. We necessarily have bodies and souls, intellects and wills and passions. And from that nature comes our purpose: truth and love and beauty, all leading ultimately to God. And there’s nothing we can do to change that purpose. It’s based on what we are.

Our only choice is whether we will achieve our purpose, or whether we’ll break ourselves.

That’s the choice we are free to make.

Three

Acting against the nature or purpose of a thing means damaging or breaking it

Whether we look at artificial objects or natural objects, we see that we can’t change their natures. We can only use them rightly, or break them.

If you want a fish, an actual live fish, you’ll have to respect its nature. You’ll have to give it the right amount of fish food and put it in water of the right temperature. If you don’t give it food or put it in water, you will break that fish. 

So too, if you want a lightbulb to work right, you have to respect its design and purpose. For instance, you’ll have to connect it to some electricity source. What you can’t do is try to change the lightbulb’s purpose and still expect it to work. You can’t, for instance, use a lightbulb to hammer nails into wood. The nails won’t go into the wood and you will break that lightbulb in the process.

Now the same goes for us: You are free to not respect our nature and purpose – but you’re not free to change our nature and purpose. Our nature and purpose are what they are – and if you try to change our nature or our purpose, what happens is very simple: We break.

Four

Trying to change human nature

We are right now at the most extreme point, in all of human history, of trying to change human nature, of eradicating all distinctions of nature.

We are running around saying that men can be women and women can be men. We’re saying that humans can be cats and that dogs are the same as humans. We’re saying that people can be enhanced, that we’ll evolve or modify ourselves into a new kind of species. The fact is, we’re not free to do any of that. It’s like pretending a lightbulb can become a hammer, or pretending that a fish can breathe without water.

You are free to pretend that way. About lightbulbs or fish or even people. But it’s a deadly game of pretend. Because all it does is destroy, maim, mutilate, and warp people. It causes despair and suicide and death. 

Because even though you’re free to act against your nature, and your purpose, the only thing that only comes from it in the end is that God’s beautiful sons and daughters are broken.

Five

There is only one road. You are free which direction to take.

We only have one human nature. It’s set. It’s like a single road, stretching out in two directions. That road is fixed, it’s unchangeable. It’s what we are. And we will walk on that road. Our choice is, what direction will we go?

Will we turn to the right, and follow the road in the direction that leads to fulfillment, flourishing, and the wonderful surprise of things working more and more rightly? Will we take the direction that leads to God and glory?

Or will we turn to the left, go the wrong way, against the direction of nature, and follow the road that undermines and attacks our humanity, twisting our bodies, twisting our minds and hearts, walking further and further as the road grows more and more crooked – until finally, we come to the place prepared for the devil and his angels, the last abode of the willfully bent – those who preferred to be sick and wrong forever? 

We can’t choose the road of our nature, and we can’t choose where the road finishes up at either end.

All we can choose is which way we will go.

That’s the freedom we have. We’d better be very careful how we use it.