do you wish we truly where born with free will?

Question

as in free will i mean that you can do anything that dosent limit your will.

Answer 1

Most people believe they make "free" choices, but here's the truth.

Everything---and I mean everything---we do is determined by two very basic desires:

_ To avoid pain

_ To gain pleasure

Of course we all have different ideas of what "pain" and "pleasure" are. They can be simple, obvious, and universal (avoid pain: "Avoid getting hit by a car") or complicated and individual (gain pleasure: "Find out where I can download that new Advil Monkeys CD, because they are so cool and I don't care if downloading music is technically stealing").

Our other concepts of pain and pleasure are so deeply rooted in our subconscious minds that we don't even know we have them. For example, if you were scared by a dog when you were three, you may fear or dislike dogs as a adult without knowing why.

And there are the many pain/pleasure preferences that have absolutely no explanation or ultimate "truth". Do you like raw tomatoes? Why, or why not? For every activity or concept you can think of, you'll find people around the world with wildly different opinions and preferences. (Love chocolate? There are people who run away screaming when they see it!)

The point is, our brains are computers. When we're conceived, we inherit a certain amount of genetic programming. Our minds are further shaped by our experiences, body chemistry (including illness and environmental factors), and other subtle forces we're just beginning to understand. Because we witness the process, we get the idea we actually have some influence on it.

But it's naive to believe we "control" our thoughts, feelings, decisions, or actions with our conscious mind.

The conscious mind is very much like the display on a computer: It's a format for one subconscious mind to communicate with others. It's an interface. The display doesn't control the processor; it _shows the results_ of the processing, to communicate it to the outside world.

Culturally, we've been conditioned to believe that our conscious minds are "in charge". But consider this: How do you "make a decision"? You need a DESIRE to make it. And since you often have conflicting desires to make different decisions, you need a desire that's stronger than the other desires.

Okay, then, create a desire. That means you'll need a desire to create the desire... But to do that, you'll need a desire to create the desire to create the desire... and on and on. Yikes---where does it start?

It DOESN'T start. Your subconscious mind continually analyzes the input from your senses, your feelings, and your memories. When it identifies a situation that involves:

_ Avoiding pain, or

_ Gaining pleasure

...it compares all this information to its database of previous experiences (real AND imagined!), and presents the results as desires.

Sometimes these results conflict, and we have a terrible time figuring out the strongest desire. But we don't MAKE the desires. They're computed for us. It's such a tremendously complicated process, we could never possibly do it consciously---we'd go mad (and sometimes we do, when we try!).

These principles are very basic, but most people either flatly reject them or argue vehemently against them. Why do they put up such huge resistance?

It's the ego, the part of our brains that believes we're separate from everything else---the part that believes we must preserve our illusion of individual identity in order to survive. Ironically, this is a part of us that is closer to our animal instincts than our intellectual capacities as humans.

The ego kicks in very quickly and "pulls the rug out" from under our attempts to understand our true nature: That we're all exactly the way we're supposed to be, and that we're all just doing the best we can. It explains a lot of the craziness in the world, too---for example, why we're still being so mean to each other, even though we realize we're all in the same world and were meant to accept and care for each other, and help each other be happy.

Maybe someday the light will dawn on us and we'll understand. Till then, the illusion of "free will" will continue to cause intolerance, self-righteousness, misery, and suffering.

Answer 2

Your question assumes that we do not have free will. I reject that assertion. I think that within the limits of our reality, we are free to do whatever we like.

For example, the fact that I cannot lift a truck with my body does not mean I don't have free will. Will implies choice to me. I can choose to lift the truck. I just don't have the wherewithal.

Answer 3

For all practical purposes, we are. Although one could, with a sufficiently powerful computer, calculate in principle the interactions of all the components of a human being with all of the components of the environment, and thus precisely determine what a person would do in a particular circumstance, in practice it is not possible -- it would require a machine the size of the universe.

Answer 4

Yes we have free will but its limitation is that we not hurt each other the same thing any good parent would tell his children.
You can play Johny but be careful you don't hurt your sister.
Is that taking away your free will? NO, it is just ensureing we don't hurt each other. By lieing, stealing, adultry, homosexual activity, greedy, or taking advantage of others.

Answer 5

"That is the sternest blow against free-will of which I know; what a free-willer can make out of that text, I cannot tell. He says that any man can come to Christ, yet Christ said to some, “Ye will not come to me;” and both observation and experience prove that this is still true. Never yet did a soul come to Christ till first Christ came to it"

Charles Spurgeon

Answer 6

We do have a free will. You choose what you do or not. Even God will not force himself on you. He just welcomes all who would have a relationship with him through Jesus. We have to go to him and ask for his forgiveness, which was provided by Jesus dieing on the cross for our sins.

Answer 7

if your don't feel free then change your way of thinking - your mind is always free to choose what it thinks about

Answer 8

I know I was.

Answer 9

We are.

So I am told :)