Freedom and Calvinism

The great software freedom icon Richard Stallman was in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday. He gave a public seminar at University Malaya, which was well attended (by freedomn lovers? pirates?) ;-) .

Stallman, the author of the famous 'The Cathedral and the Bazaar" which promoted software freedom, sounded very much a 'software Arminian'. He was espousing the notoriety of software patents and spoke about why software should be 'set free' for the greater benefit of mankind.

While I liked his talk and agree with his philosophy, at some point he did appear to be a 'anarchist' (to me at least and my friend Chor Hon). Still, freedom is something I agree we should all have. Then we bear the consequences of out actions, whatever that is.

The next day, a Sunday, I heard a sermon in church, which seemed very much Calvinistic. The preacher was saying that our life has all been planned and programmed. His proof? The DNA. Since the DNA determines who, what and why we are the way we are, our life is pretty much fixed. So the preacher says. But is it true?

Can we equate what is true in the physical world to be applicable in the spiritual realm? What about the thought functions? Scientist still don't know what are the full function of the brain.

I disagree with the pracher, for he placed into scripture what wasn't supposed to be there. The 400-year debate between the two school of thought is not resolved but why are we still fighting?

What a weekend...Software Arminian and a probably a Calvinist preacher lecture. Good, it set my grey matter to think freely.

"Freely you have been given, freely give!" (Context: Give genrously)