What is free will?

Question

It seems that the root of all evil by most standards is "Free Will". God gave you free will, thus its your human choice to choose and if you chose otherwise from good, you have done evil. Is there really free will? Are all actions percieved through free will? The randomness and mess that is very much part of our natural world provides little choice in our way of life, and much of life is dictated by our environment and the people that affect us. So good free will seems more like a luxury to those who can afford it or with some luck is in the environment to be so..

A point I'm getting across is that the choice of doing something bad may not always be up to you. Example is like a child growing up in a messy neighbourhood, knowing only violence, witth no guidance. Or a person who's family was killed in war and is swept through by anger and hatred and decide to blow himelf up to kill many others. I would never say it is right, but imagine that what is going through his mind. We can easily say its wrong, but to him, it may be the best and totally right thing to do. Free will seems to me like a luxury to those who have a better environment to make do, and I do agree there are those exeptional ones that can do it no matter what. But there are not many exeptional people in this world, for at the end we are only human and most humans are not exeptional, because God created us that way.

Answer 1

Free Will vs Pre Determinism. I agree about Free Will being a choice. I can see your point the more choices being a luxury, but I beleive in Fate today. Life is a predetermined event over which we have no control. Might chane my mind by tommorrow though. Good luck on getting any solid answers.

Answer 2

Free will doesn't refer to totally unconstrained choice in every scenario - obviously there are a lot of factors in each life that are beyond the control of the individual, which also impact the decisions that individual makes.

Mechanically, free will requires some decision making apparatus that isn't entirely driven by external inputs. That might be a soul, or the mind, or the brain. A car doesn't have free will, because when we press on the gas, the response is determined solely by A) a chain of mechanical and chemical actions & reactions and B) the existing physical state of the car and it's local environment (temperature, wear & tear, etc). If the car had some way to select its response based on some internal state not influenced by physical actions, then we could say the car had free will.

I think you are interpreting free will as some kind of global choice to always be good or always be 'bad', but I think of it as something that operates at every decision. Some will be good choices, some will be bad, some will be the best of several bad options.

Answer 3

You're sort of pursuing circular logic there. You seem to be saying that people use their free will to choose evil more than good, so that limits what other people can choose, making free will nonexistent. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Of course we all have free will. Read a book like "The Hiding Place" to see how free will exists even in the worst conditions. It is something that noone can take away - it is the essence of humanity IMO.

Answer 4

The problem of free will is not confined to theology. In a Universe bound by laws of physics where every cause has an effect there is a problem fitting in free will in the deterministic chain. Quatum Mechanics holds out promise for those who wish to believe in free will though 'quantum randomness' is not really what people really think of when they discuss free will.

One more thing it is determinism that philospohers tend to discuss not predeterminism which is a very different beast and does not exist outside of theology.

It is a tough subject and formed quite a bit of my second year at University.

Answer 5

Without free will, what choice would you have? None. No good, no evil, no happy, no sad, no reward, no consequence. Boring.

Yes, some people do not have means to help others, but all have something to reach out to others if they so choose. Also, if there was no one who needed help or was in desperate straits, then how would anyone find a way to show the good that is in them?

Answer 6

Free will is the capabilty to choose what you do as opposed to predestination which means your entire life, good or evil, has already been decided. (This is pretty much similiar to the first part of your question). What doesn't make sense is when you start talking about randomness, environment and other effects - you still choose how you deal or interact with these things.

Answer 7

Theologically speaking, free will only involves the ability to look to God for our salvation, not whether God has made us all robots or whether it's all controlled by physics. That should answer your main question. Free will isn't the root of all evil, but you're close if you believe in original sin, that is, being so tainted with our sin nature and that we cannot look to God for salvation. If this is true, and I believe it is, then what follows in "free will" doesn't matter one bit if we are all simply guilty before God and deserving of His wrath. Our environment is not to blame, WE are the ones to blame.

Answer 8

As a dream symbol, free will is a very complicated and quite rare occurrence. To make consciousness acknowledgment, within a dream, that one is exercising Free Will, is more likely to trigger a lucid experience, than convey any message. However, in the even that lucidity is not the result of dreaming of Free Will, one can interpret such a dream message as being a very powerful symbol.

Answer 9

We have the right to chose between good or evil, we know the consequences of both. No matter the situation, there is right or wrong, that does not change.Often we try to make excuses for our behaviors, however the fact remains there is always a choice - we can choose the right path or the wrong one. let us pray that we take the right one.

Answer 10

Many people have feelings towards other people of the same sex, and wonder whether this means that they are gay. For many people these feelings can be very intense and alienating. Some people who are attracted to other people of the same sex are gay and go on to have sexual relationships with people of the same sex. But other people who have gay feelings find that these change over time and they become attracted to people of the opposite sex.

Other people are attracted to both men and women, and have relationships with both. Some people are not attracted to anyone and wonder if this is a sign of homosexuality. Often it is only time that will resolve these feelings. If you think you might be gay and feel you need to talk to someone most countries have telephone helplines and organisations that can provide information and support for you.