Do we have Free Will?

Question

Or are we really governed by Self-Control?

A lot of people have answered my questions by God gave us Free Will......

I do believe we are conditioned, and our actions are not free will but self-control. We do make our own choices, but they are governed by our beliefs and what we learn as we travel through life.

So, where is the Free Will everyone talks about?

Self-Control also allows us to make sense of difficult cases where free will is unhelpful :)

Answer 1

Your question explanation makes sense. I have not really thought that much about it...but now I wonder...

Answer 2

So many ways to answer this question!

One thing always comes to mind: Christians believing in free will is a relatively new phenomenon historically speaking. The argument given by Christianity until a century or two ago was that god was all-powerful and all-knowing. If he knows what you will choose can you really be choosing? If he has all the power then no one else CAN have any at all. Thus, no action without his command, no free will.

In philosophy it usually stated more in terms of free will versus determinism. If the world is determined, if the future is determined, any feeling of choice we have is an illusion since we are going to choose the one way the future already is. It's that things are a certain way at this moment. All the molecules are exactly where they happen to be going in the direction they are going. Determinism requires that if you let go of a hammer it will fall. Free will requires that the hammer only might fall.

I think that the sensation of us choosing is so strong that it does not matter that the world is determined. It feels real and that's how we go about choosing what we are going to choose anyway. But that does not mean we didn't choose it. We just could not have chosen otherwise.

Answer 3

Self-control implies that one has a will to be governed and this would make the answer to your question "yes, we have free will."

You seem to be struggling with a different question.. "Are we able to step outside of ourselves and take an action that is against our learned moral standard?" I think the answer to that question is also "yes." I believe it is possible to do something which is in complete disagreement with what one feels and thinks is the correct behavior.. taking a rationalized step is not impossible. Rationalized behavior, it seems, is almost like living out ones decision as an experiment; it's a choice made, an action taken and a result left to be observed. I think this is how we develop small changes within ourselves over the course of our lifetime.

((((( r u randy? )))))
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Answer 4

True free will means for any given choice we could taken any decision.

Now it may not be practical, safe, ethical, possible, desirable etc for all of these choices to be open to you. That is self control, which limits free will and is governed by your personal choices.

If you can shift the boundaries of self control then you have true free will.

A balance of free will and self control seems the most successful strategy.

Answer 5

There is no contradiction between free will and self control. Free will means you have the ability to make your own choices; self control means you can deal with the consequences of those choices and accept responsibility for your own actions. Self control also means *choosing* to act in certain ways that are beneficial for yourself and for others. Without self-control there is no free will, you'd just be reacting reflexively, and you might end up "deciding" to do things that are harmful to yourself as well as others.
Free will isn't excluded by our beliefs, either, because we *choose* to believe or disbelieve things. (There are things that you would refuse to believe even if someone talked themselves blue that it was true, right?) And although we learn things in life, and create conditioned responses, we can also *choose* to discard or ignore lessons learned, and *choose* to decondition ourselves to certain things (see people who overcome phobias, relationship problems, survivors of abuse, etc.)
So you see they are different concepts, but not mutually exclusive.

Answer 6

Your Free Will is that u can choose which beliefs govern ur actions and condition u. Free Will helps us choose the right one and differentiate between the evil and the good. It is a result of ur rooted beliefs that u come up in life. U see the free Will in choosing to abide by God's decisions or oppose him.. You choose with ur Free Will whether to die like Jesus or die like Judas.. :-)

Answer 7

We do have free will (to an extent) Most people who excersise their free will to it's full extent are branded insane. We are governed by laws which we have to take into account before we do anything. However, you are free to do anything but it's part of free will to consider the consequences. If you didn't then your free will would be taken away from you quicker than you can say I didn't do it!

Answer 8

Yes we are free. I am a faithful believer in my religion. We are taught that all human beings are created to act in freedom of choice. We may leave the protection of Isis and wander into the shadows if we choose to.

Answer 9

Yes, we do have free will, otherwise nobody could be held accountable for their actions. There would be no such thing as blame or even good or evil if everything we did had been directed by someone else such as God. Nothing would be our fault. We could do anything and blame someone else.

Answer 10

your question is a good one and difficult to understand. I will try to guide you on this... after watching the Matrix, I can see your line of thought. But that is Hollywood. remember that. it IS makebelieve. Now you mentioned GOD giving us free will, so that is where I want to go. GOD does give us free will because HE wants our love. you see only thru love is love awakened. to know GOD is to love HIM.It was not the fear of punishment of the hope of everlasting reward that caused the disciples of CHRIST to follow HIM...they beheld the Saviour's matchless love revealed thruout HIS pilgramage in earth from the manger of Bethlehem to Calvary's cross. Love attracts , it softens and subdues the soul. love awakens in the eyes of the beholder , they HEAR his voice and follow HIM. there is alot more to it but this is a start. wanna know more/ email me at [e-mail] and we will talk more.