The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

by Timothy J. Keller

This oversimplifies, however. Freedom cannot be defined in strictly negative terms, as the absence of confinement and constraint. In fact, in many cases, confinement and constraint is actually a means to liberation. If you have musical aptitude, you may give yourself to practise, practise, practise the piano for years. This is a restriction, a limit on your freedom. There are many other things you won’t be able to do with the time you invest in practising. If you have the talent, however, the discipline and limitation will unleash your ability that would otherwise go untapped. What have you done? You’ve deliberately lost your freedom to engage in some things in order to release yourself to a richer kind of freedom to accomplish other things. This does not mean that restriction, discipline and constraint are intrinsically, automatically liberating. For example, a five-foot-four, 9-stone young adult male should not set his heart on becoming a top American footballer. All the discipline and effort in the world will only frustrate and crush him (literally). He is banging his head against a physical reality – he simply does not have the potential. In our society many people have worked extremely hard to pursue careers that pay well rather than fit their talents and interests. Such careers are straitjackets that in the long run stifle and dehumanise us.