Freedom and Free Thought?

Answering “I Do Not Believe in God: I Am Free, Fully Human”

“Free without God”, “I am a free person, a human being with a capital H”, and “Believing in God deprives me of freedom” are slogans often heard from atheists. Are they justified? This article examines the question.

Freedom or Licence?

Freedom is commonly defined as “the power to do what one wants”. This poses a serious problem. If freedom means the complete absence of limits or laws, every law must be abolished. Yet society could hardly function that way. If freedom overrides law, who guarantees others’ rights? If we are free to steal, rape and commit every conceivable outrage to express our freedom, the result is complete social chaos. No atheist would therefore defend this definition, which describes licence rather than freedom. Allah says:

But man desires to persist in sin[2],[2] While denying the coming of the Day of Judgment.and asks [mockingly], “When is the Day of Resurrection?”Quran — Surah Al-Qiyaama (75:5–6)Source : QuranEnc.com — English Translation - Rowwad Translation Center — v1.0.19

Free without Allah, Enslaved to Countless Gods

Those who close their eyes to truth to escape the obligations—even merely moral ones—of faith in God paradoxically become victims of a slavery that exploits and exhausts them: slavery to their own desires.

Have you [O Prophet] seen the one who takes his desire as his god, will you then be a keeper over him?Quran — Surah الفرقان (25:43)Source : QuranEnc.com — English Translation - Rowwad Translation Center — v1.0.19

Some people call themselves “free because they are without God”. They forget that every person or group, even atheists, adopts one or more deities, consciously or otherwise. These may be spiritual or non-spiritual. A “deity” or “god”, with a lowercase g, is simply whatever a person treats as the highest principle and to which they devote themselves entirely, body, mind and soul.

Some people recognise God the Creator as their only deity. Others believe in God but associate other entities with Him, taking these too as deities. Others deny God while treating material things or earthly concepts as gods. Feeling that one belongs to the same nation as others is natural. But what is ultranationalism if not making the nation a god? The same reasoning applies to other concepts and physical things. Is “In Gold We Trust” not some people’s creed? Was the Second World War caused by anything other than certain groups’ deification of their own nation?

Faith in Allah: A Liberating Faith

You probably know the expression “free as a fish in water”. In water, fish move freely and easily; on dry land, they soon die. Likewise, when we live in an environment suited to our nature, we are free and our lives can be happy.
True freedom is not the absence of limits or restrictions: it means living within the right ones. God’s restrictions are precisely what enable true happiness. Having designed human beings, He knows exactly what they need to live happily. Whenever He forbids one thing or prescribes another, it is so that people may enjoy happiness in this life and the Hereafter.