The denial of flesh, or the material world is an important Christian teaching. In Matthew 16:24 Christ says “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." Then in Galatians 5:24 “Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Much of our daily actions are driven by our bodily desires. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer argued that humans lack free will; our actions are entirely determined by external stimuli and causes, and we merely react to these motives. Schopenhauer believed that to achieve true freedom, we must abandon our passions and desires. Similarly, Christ teaches that to attain spiritual freedom, we must deny our flesh and follow Him. How, then, does any of this relate to prosperity? 400
We choose our partners, have children, and pray they will grow up to be better than us. We compete for a better mate, and in one way or the other all progress is shaped by our vision of reproductive success. Our struggle to dominate motivates evolution and shapes the fabric of our civilization. Language first, then reading and writing emerge, now if you can't communicate you are less competitive. Each passing day more knowledge is required to compete. Complexity increases, with each generation, repeated generation after generation, with each step being more complex than the previous. Our epoch, place, language and civilization is imposed on us, our desire is imposed on us. Progress is pushed by sexual motivation, one generation causing the formation of the next, both causal and deterministic. Do we have free will, or is free will an illusion? 359
