Freedom?

In my recent explosion of personal reductionist thought, I am beginning to analyze my political opinions and their causes. I  came to the conclusion that I want as much freedom as possible in a society (before I go any further, I will define freedom here as the leeway to do what you want in various ways). If I would take away any freedoms, I would take away freedoms for the few to preserve the freedoms of the many (for me, an example is economics). While expecting some to disagree with me on the last part, I assumed that the general consensus would be that the more freedom there is, the better. Analyzing prevalent opinions in the area proved otherwise.

What do you think? Is more freedom always a good thing? Why or why not?

Ultimately, I'd like for us to be able to reduce differences in our opinions down to the most basic opinions in belief. When you answer the above questions, really think about what you believe. 

Evil: What is it?

After an interesting discussion through the comments on a post of Jack Loveland's on his blog, it brought me to an interesting question: how does one define evil? The closest one can definitively say about that is that evil is the opposite of good. 

Can one define evil? Some would say that good and evil is relative and depends on circumstances and the individuals concerned. Others would say that good and evil do not exist at all, being merely a flawed construct of our collective minds. Some of the more interesting ones I've heard include the utilitarian idea that evil is what does the most harm to the most people (as opposed to the most good to the most people), and, one that I've come up with, the idea that evil is what takes away one's free will. 

None of these definitions seem to 'hit the spot', for me to define what evil really is. What do you think?

Free Will: Allowed?

In a brief amount of time, I would like to state my opinion on a certain 'hot topic' of conversation (or maybe not, I dunno). The question is: should morality be enforced? The argument for that might be that there are certain things that are good for all people, and those things (or lack of) should be enforced on everyone. For example, most drugs are not allowed in the United States because it can cause bad health. Cigarette smoking is discouraged (but not illegal, mind you) because of the same reason. Also, gay marriage is still not legal in most of the 50 states. Why is this? Perhaps it is because that homosexuality is an abomination of sorts, against nature and all that. Perhaps it is because children need a parent of both genders, or what have you.

I personally don't agree with those sentiments. I believe that any drug that does not cause you to harm other people (like Marijuana for example), should be legal. Similarly, I oppose efforts to ban the smoking of cigarettes entirely (I support the banning of it in some public places, again so it doesn't harm other people unwillingly). Also, and the most controversial of all, I believe people should be able to do whatever they want with their own body: pierce it, tattoo it, mutilate it or have intercourse with whoever or whatever (as long as it's willingly) in as ridiculous and disgusting ways as they want to. I also believe that two, responsible, sensitive people, no matter what their gender, should be able to marry and adopt a child (there are different studies saying that either homosexual or homosexual parents are more suited for parenting) and raise it as they see fit.

Now, this does not mean I would do these things myself, no, I would not bring my body to that kind of low. I simply believe that people's free will (central to several religions I know of) should be enforced, as long as it does not interfere with others'.

Now, I know that the above is controversial. I delight in controversy, so please comment.