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Does free will exist?

Hi Salām,

Freedom IMO is like holding your breath, in protest likely, which anyone can do until you ANS takes over by Force. Ergo there's approximately no Free Will. Humans have Free Will. Angels doesn't.

Do for your Life as if you live forever, Do for your hereafter as if you die tomorrow - Quote
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From this quote we learn you must Do, that is activate your muscle and be workforce.

Thomas Edison tried 1000 methods on inventing the Light-Bulb, 999 failed to give good Results. But finally it worked.
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You can not think yourself to produce Results, you must Do result over time. And you'll fall and rise again. God does like those whom are correct, God likes thos whom are strong, whom rise and do not give up... And in our world ... that's how things go. One can't play smart even if one is juvenlie, can he?

I acknowledge young people have bigger need for for playing. Like Lions cubs play, and improve their skill.

Walk the Talk. Walk the Walk.
If you think you can you are correct, if you think you can't you are also correct.
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This is half Truth. You must be a machine 😎👍. You must do while you still can.

We learn we must use our youth until "The Chair" preoccupies our life and we can not be in school, children again. Use your youth. ... i'm noticing things are getting difficult as i'm older, and if i could work Harder as kid i would. Although i thank God for what he has given.

And The Diety know best
 
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In one sense, I can only act like a human much like a bird can only act like a bird and so on. On the other hand, I can opt to do or not do certain things. My choices are not unlimited. I cannot choose to fly like a bird. My flights are more expensive and involve tickets and airlines.
 
Yes, to a certain extent. We are heavily burdened by our bodies, our environment, our upbringing. We make choices all the time we do not want to make. We make many mistakes over and over. So in that sense, we have free will but it is limited, burdened.

But IMO there is one aspect of ourselves that is completely unburdened. And that's what we choose to prioritize in our hearts, to love - the idea behind John 3:16. Or to take a secular example, stereotypical rich businessmen might value money above all else, and the choices they make are derivative of that.
 
Aspergers_Aspie said:
Does free will exist, what are people's opinions please?
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The first thing to do is:
Define the context of the discussion.

Are we talking about "Absolute" free will?
If so, this is an obvious nonsense.

Be stunned...
Be awed...
Be enlightened by my following wisdom. :cool:

Consider:
Did you freely choose to be conceived? 🤔
 
jsilver256 said:
Yes, to a certain extent. We are heavily burdened by our bodies, our environment, our upbringing
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Evolution...
Consider this intently. 🤔

If conscious, sentient life had evolved from reptiles, rather than mammals, surely it would have different psychological influences.
We would have different biological needs...
We would have a different social structure...
Surely...

Embracing this premise, how could our "platter" of choices be infinite?
If there is a finite number of choices, then how do we have "absolute" free will?

Conclusion:
We are bound by our limited experiences, insight, wisdom, circumstances.
Myth Busted. :cool:

Myth Busted.webp
 
Jonn said:
If conscious, sentient life had evolved from reptiles, rather than mammals
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But it did. Mammals definitely evolved from reptiles. At what point they became conscious has not been determined. Who is to say that reptiles are not both conscious (aware they exist) and sentient (aware of/responsive to physical sensation)?
 
Of course. Dogs have free will when they choose to be a good boy. Just like we do, and fish can be trained to make choices they usually don't but are capable of. Some fish like the bottom naturally and they choose to be at the bottom of a tank because they evolved to live better there, but that also is affected by the way life evolved. Some choices are instinctive.

We know the subconscious capabilities are much vaster in humans, it's a very fast and precise calculator, but we don't always choose to follow our gut feeling which is considered the most reliable thing we have by neurologists.

But there are things like cultism and religion which have taken away my free will within the indoctrination I went through by parents and society as a kid. These are things that make you believe you're doomed for acting a certain way without any proof of evidence. People can be rid of their free will through manipulation and can reach amazing performance outside of it when they are free to use their critical thinking and develop a true personal moral compass.

Belief is not free but people assert their free will or are drawn by emotion or often choose to ignore the reasonable. Other times they're subject to fallacious reasoning, circular arguments etc. just as the brain gets fooled by magic tricks.

I'm free to do harm exactly as much as I want which is zero times.

I'm free to do what no other man has but I'm not free to achieve what is impossible or immoral to me. In other words I have rules and universal laws to think about and I best not be disrooted from reality and myself to succeed. Practically our choices are a matter of multiple considerations but we are free-est when we can do what we decided, even when it's difficult to go against the grain or there are repercussions.
 
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Au Naturel said:
But it did. Mammals definitely evolved from reptiles. At what point they became conscious has not been determined. Who is to say that reptiles are not both conscious (aware they exist) and sentient (aware of/responsive to physical sensation)?
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It is interesting that you feel a need to be contradictory.

Reptiles evolved from reptiles.
Had they evolved into being self-conscious reptiles, I doubt they would have a similar Weltanschauung. :cool:
 
Structure vs agency. I view it as corkscrew. We exist in a society that works to perpetuate itself and in that regard there is no free will, however society does change when someone purposefully decides to alter it, or when mistakes happen in the perpetuation, so some free will. Those changes knock society off it's cycle of perpetuation slightly. So instead of a circular repeating pattern we get the corkscrew of society repeating itself but also being altered ever so slightly all the time. So it's both no free will and some free will.
 
DrBadStrings said:
Structure vs agency. I view it as corkscrew. We exist in a society that works to perpetuate itself and in that regard there is no free will, however society does change when someone purposefully decides to alter it, or when mistakes happen in the perpetuation, so some free will. Those changes knock society off it's cycle of perpetuation slightly. So instead of a circular repeating pattern we get the corkscrew of society repeating itself but also being altered ever so slightly all the time. So it's both no free will and some free will.
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I think linear and curcular are different things. One can't combine them in corckscrew.
 
No, which doesn't mean we don't have responsibility and aren't accountable. I'll defer to Spinoza's Ethics for a better explanation.
 
lunarious said:
I think linear and curcular are different things. One can't combine them in corckscrew.
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I would disagree. I think you absolutely can create the corkscrew. Ultimately, there is no definitive answer which is why the structure vs agency debate will never be over.
 
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