the concept of free will?

Question

do you truly believe in it

you can't choose your family, your gifts, your potential, your physical appearance, etc...

these are all the basics to take you where you can go, not where you want to go

agree?

Answer 1

We have limited freedom.

That view exists between two extremes.


(1) Total free-will, where we decide everything about ourselves.

(2) No free-will, where everything about us is determined.


Now limited free will states that there is much that is determined by genetics, environment, and our own limitations, but within certain defined parameters we are free to choose this or that.




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Answer 2

I don't believe there is such a thing as free-will. As individuals we have the opportunity to direct the course of our lives and are free to make the choices that support our values.
Free-will is determined by the power of the mind to discriminate, to analyse and choose. Therefore it might be said that free-will does exist up to a point. The truth however is that our lives are interwoven within the vast processes of the Planetary evolution. We are subject to what might be called 'acts of God' before which we are helpless.
There is no escape from Karma all we can do is to work and live Intelligently and responsibly.

May I recommend the following book by Alice Bailey-Ponder on This. .

Answer 3

Do I believe in free will? Yes. But nothing is limitless. One can only choose from the choices available. Free will means one can exercise one's will to influence the course of events. It only requires that one could have done otherwise.

I don't think anyone who's given the issue serious thought believes it to be (or even defined to be) unlimited. Many people see a contradiction between determinism and free will, claiming that if every event has a cause, then everything is predetermined. But there are compatibilitsts as well (I am one) who think that determinism doesn't necessitate predetermination. My belief is that free will is an emergent property of consciousness that allows for non-predetermined futures in a deterministic universe.

Answer 4

I don't believe in the concept of free will and I'll explain to you why with a few concepts of my own.
First of all, I believe our lives as humans are predetermined by God (our Higher Power) because he is the one who created us, bought us to this Earth, and he knows what choices we have made in our past life which is why he brings us back over and over again until we learn to make the right choices to be in his elite team of angels.
Second of all, we don't really have free will in a state of where we are in or on this Earth as we may think. When we're babies we're bought up in a city and state which we didn't choose, we go to a school our parents chose, as a man/woman our government makes decisions for us, and we really don't get a say in what goes on (plus our government watches over us) as we type or speak.
You make a great point by saying how we don't choose your family, your gifts, your potential, your physical appearance, etc. I believe God gave us certain things for a reason. I believe choices are a good thing; choices help you prepare for a lot of things in life. Choices is balance. We're being selfish and what is best for us every time we make a choice. We as humans are selfish either the righteous or unrighteous sense: We're all selfish one way or another, when we treat people as though they were us and accept them as who they are, that's righteous selfishness and the way humankind should be but when we have no regard for anyone else and treat others differently than the way you'd like to be treated that unrighteous selfishness.
For everything there are opposites. Opposites attract merely because one thing is of coincidence that they meet substantial goal. Rights will be met with wrongs and rights will seek out wrongs. Balance is the neutral point.
Life is about choices and making the right ones but when you don't make the right one, there's always another chance for you to make the right one.
There is never a compromise because you've got to think of what's best for you or those around you.

Answer 5

No I can't choose my family or my gifts, but my potential is determined only by me and my physical appearance can always be altered. It's not where you come from that matters, it's where you've been and what you've done with the knowledge you have that decides where you'll go.

Answer 6

I disagree with your statement. You can't choose who you marry? whether or not to have children? You can't choose whether you have potential or not? you can't choose your physical appearance? I believe that these are all things you have control over, whether you choose to control them or not is up to you.

Where you can go, and where you want to go are sometimes 2 different destinations, but you still must choose.

Maybe it would be better worded as a concept of free choice rather than will.

Answer 7

Free will may be real but an advanced mind, the mind of God, in my opinion, could account for every variable and in that way predict everything. It is not that you don't have free will so much as it is that you really don't have a choice. Things happen, cells split, the air reminds you of something, you start thinking cinnamon rolls, you decide with your free will to go buy a cinnamon roll but did you really decide? Or did all of the factors that prompted you to desire a cinnamon roll decide for you?

Answer 8

Everything, good or bad from we people's points of view, is planned by God. We can do whatever we want only within God's will. It is god's will to have some creatures to be human beings and some human beings to be smarter. Yes, it is not unfair to other creatures or human beings with less intelligence.

But god make life fair by mean of what people think a bad thing -- "death". So the pig you just ate can be a human being now, and you and I might become a pig next life. Maybe, Albert Einstein is now is a ......???, hehe, only God knows.

To our God, nothing is bad and nothing is good!

Answer 9

Looking at my life , I believe I would make the same choices and mistakes over and over again because one choice leads me to choose the same next choice.Like I was led down this path by making what I thought were good choices. no such thing as free will

Answer 10

There are pockets of spaces in between absolute free will and determinism were i feel we have control. I argue for free will, knowing i have made decisive actions and bear responsibilty for it and enjoyed the fruits of my labour. I don't feel like a robot playing out a scripted act.