Freewill cannot be possible at all due to everything that happens in someones life being caused by something else or a collaberative of other events. This also includes a persons knowledge, either learned over the years or instinctive and built in their nature, both of these and the external events are the three things that fundamentally lead you to every decision you make. Therefore the idea of freewill is just a model or ideal and infact impossible. From religious perspective where god gave man freewill, people fall back on the idea of everything happens for a reason or god has a plan for us all, statements of such hypocrisy but truth that they prove no free will can actually exist even for those who are religious. What do you think, please include argument and no religious ranting from people who cant let go of their comfort blankets.
2006-07-12 22:44:29 · 15 answers · asked by Octavius 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
As far as I can see, there is no such thing as free will. I base this on the trivial observation that you cannot choose what to think before you think it. Thoughts come into your mind unbidden, and you cannot choose what your next thought is going to be, because you would have to already be thinking of it in order to choose to think it, and that leads to an infinite regression.
Undoubtedly there is the influence of cause and effect - something happens to you, and you then think about it - and perhaps there is also a completely random element, but the same could be said of the weather, and we don't say that the weather therefore has free will.
So, if we cannot choose what to think, then we cannot choose what to do either, since our actions are (generally) guided by our thoughts (and any action that is *not* guided by our thoughts wouldn't be characterised as 'will' of any sort anyway).
Hence, as far as I can tell, free will does not exist.
2006-07-12 22:56:09 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It is an interesting concept because we are definitly shaped by the time we live in etc. We would have made different decision if we were born say 50 years earlier if that makes sense. As for the whole freewill vs. predestination a thought I've had is that God knows each of us so well that he is able to slot us in to the right place and time with the right people so that when we act in freewill we will still are fitting into His perfect plan. God is outside time and much greater than we are and if He says that I have freewill to love Him and that he also has a plan for me I'm going to accept that no questions asked because He is obviously alot smarter than me and can understand things that I can't even imagine. Just a thought.
2006-07-12 22:55:32 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The concept of free will cannot possibly be expanded to include every decision we make in life. What we have for lunch can be influenced by a billboard we passed on the way to work, or the faint aroma of chinese food from the restaurant down the street. There are however certain choices that we make that cannot be influenced, they basically boil down to whether we choose to be good or evil. If someone insults us we choose to respond or to ignore, we choose the sort of response we will take. If a man was to insult me and i took a sharp object and drove it deep into his flesh, i could not claim that the decision was influenced by things I have seen or been taught, I must take responsibility for such a heinous act.
Everyone has the ability to think and act of their own free will, paying no heed to custom, culture or law. The fact that most people do not does not mean that the potential is not there, and the fact that people who do this are declared to be at best slightly odd and at worst criminally insane suggests why most people prefer to conform, and be as sheep, rather than use the most precious of gifts, the ability to choose.
2006-07-12 23:01:56 · answer #3 · answered by DrewBoy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Freewill is limited, however not impossible. We all have free will to an extent. For example, I could have easily killed someone. It's in my nature, I had the means, I had motive, I knew how to get away with it. I honestly considered it. But I didn't do it. Why? Free will. I chose not to. I seriously contemplated it, and over came my gut impulse, based on something deep in side of me. I guess It's morality. I suppose you could say that If I had different circumstances in my life, or perhaps different genes, that I would have gone through with it. You might be right, but if If refuse to believe that I have free will, why not just give up and don't do anything?
2006-07-12 23:38:26 · answer #4 · answered by ? 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
that is a load of bunk...if that were true, then why do people with the same background, indeed from the same family, make very different decisions, as happens constantly? giving up on the idea of free will is nothing more than a cop-out for those who refuse to take responsibilty for their own actions!
2006-07-12 22:52:23 · answer #5 · answered by spike missing debra m 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In my opinion from a religious standpoint GOD is ALL KNOWING so when you make a choice god already KNOWS (not thinks he knows but knows) what you are going to chose. So to me the you never really had a choice and we really do not have free will.
2006-07-12 22:49:57 · answer #6 · answered by charbarski 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
wow did you ever read a book/ instinct comes from somewhere we are given that from God everything we do in life is a choice thats free will i/diot the choices we make have consequences but there our choices right or wrong free to make that choice and you will never know the answer till you die
2006-07-12 22:56:37 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Free will is possible although there are extenuating circumstances that are out of our control we decide how we take things. There are never any moments in which there is only one possible action. In all honesty in every moment there are limitless possibilities on what you can do. You control your every action not what happens to you but that control is free will.
2006-07-12 22:48:22 · answer #8 · answered by neveroutnumbered 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
all of our life events come from our freewill, there are some circumstances where events help shape our lives, but in the end, we have the choice to let them compel us or impel.
2006-07-12 22:48:05 · answer #9 · answered by Dean B 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yea it does seem as if we dont have free will. i think that maybe the only way we do have free will is in some decisions (not all) that we make. but yea also some religions say god gave us free will but in truth he didnt really give us free will becuase pretty much we are screwed if we dont worship him or "Chose" him as they say. so in actuality we have to chose god or else we go to hell. so we may have free will to chose heaven or hell. but he ****** us over on that one.
2006-07-12 22:51:15 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋