Well first let's hit this "10 Commandments" thing. The Bible doesn't exactly present them as such. I mean it's not like the Bible says "and God gave us the following
commandments" and then listed them. They are not referred to that way. It wasn't until the Geneva Bible was published in 1560 that they were written as and we started thinking of them as "
commandments from God".(1) Probably a more accurate way to look at them is to call them "some really good suggestions" since there were more than ten actually and it's hard to imagine an all powerful God who "commands" something and it doesn't happen. So in reality they are more like: "if you do these things your life will be a lot better and you will be on the path to God" as opposed to "do these things or suffer my wrath".
As far as the original question...no being commanded doesn't negate free will as you always have the power to say "no". You may suffer the consequences of refusal but everyone has the choice to obey or disobey, except in some rather radical, extreme situations where actual physical force is involved.
1)
Ten Commandments - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Though shalt do as told or burn forever is hardly a suggestion. It is an order from a tyrant.
Christians are always trying to absolve God of moral culpability in the fall by whipping out their favorite "free will!", or its all mans fault.
That is "God gave us free will and it was our free willed choices that caused our fall. Hence God is not blameworthy."
But this simply avoids God's culpability as the author of Human Nature. Free will is only the ability to choose. It is not an explanation why anyone would want to choose "A" or "B" (bad or good action). An explanation for why Eve would even have the nature of "being vulnerable to being easily swayed by a serpent" and "desiring to eat a forbidden fruit" must lie in the nature God gave Eve in the first place. Hence God is culpable for deliberately making humans with a nature-inclined-to-fall, and "free will" means nothing as a response to this problem.
Having said the above for the God that I do not believe in, I am a Gnostic Christian naturalist, let me tell you that it is all human generated. Evil is our responsibility.
Much has been written to explain what I see as a natural part of evolution.
Consider.
First, let us eliminate what some see as evil. Natural disasters. These are unthinking occurrences and are neither good nor evil. There is no intent to do evil even as victims are created.
Evil then is only human to human.
As evolving creatures, all we ever do, and ever can do, is compete or cooperate.
Cooperation we would see as good as there are no victims created. Competition would be seen as evil as it creates a victim. We all are either cooperating, doing good, or competing, doing evil at all times.
Without us doing some of both, we would likely go extinct.
This, to me, explains why there is evil in the world quite well.
Be you a believer in nature, evolution or God, we should see that what Christians see as something to blame, evil, we should see that what we have, competition, deserves a huge thanks where it belongs. God or nature.
There is no conflict between nature and God on this issue. This is how things are and should be.
Regards
DL
