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Afreeism 101

Why I Don’t Believe in Forgiveness

It Feels Good to Stop Judging

4 min readJun 18, 2020

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Imagine lending your car to a friend who then wrecks it by driving off the road into a telephone pole. Your friend walks away with minor injuries, but your car is toast. Your friend is sorry and she apologizes profusely. She asks for forgiveness.

You are curious as to why the accident happened. Was your friend driving recklessly, was she drunk, was she high, was she sleep-deprived?

Suppose, however, that it was none of these reasons. Instead, the accident was caused by a previously undetected brain tumor that at the last minute impinged up a certain part of your friend’s brain causing her to experience a seizure.

In such a case, forgiveness is not even an issue. Your friend did nothing wrong. She just happened to be the victim of bad luck. (Her bad luck goes way beyond destroying your car.) You also were the victim of bad luck. No one is at fault. As a result, no one needs to be forgiven.

Afreeism

Here is the thing though. What applies to your friend applies to everyone in every instance. The exact reasoning applies even if your friend got into the accident by reckless driving, drunk driving, driving high, driving without sleep, whatever. We live in a causal…

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Economist, teacher, student, dabbler in philosophy, ideas, music, and sport. Knows nothing for sure or maybe at all.