Christians: Can you explain why you think we have free will?

Question

Obviously you can choose whether to eat an apple or a pear. That's not what I mean by free will. That choice was determined by your previous brain states along with sensory input. It was an illusion that you had a choice. If the universe was put back in exactly the same state, you would choose exactly the same way every time.

Can you explain where I am going wrong here?

Mullah: It's true there could be quantum randomness, but that still means no free will. I was just trying to simplify the question.

Ommie: How is this not a question? I am asking about how you think.

Giggly: That's not free will. My point is that you had no control over which route you chose to take, because your brain is a computer and given the same inputs it will give the same output. In the exact same situation, you will choose to do the same thing each time.

Answer 1

Think of Free Will as driving a car.

Under the majority of circumstances, if you follow the rules and natural laws with driving (Stop signs, staying within the boundaries of road, speeds & centrifugal forces, etc-etc) you'll come to the same results --- getting to your destination with ease.

Now, if you want to go against the rules and natural laws, you may still get to your destination, but it will be harder. Say, you want to drive in a straight line from San Francisco to Los Vegas. This would require leaving the boundaries of the road and "Off - Roding" over mountains, rivers, and deserts. You may get several flats, and possibly flip your car.

Or if you wanted to be disobedient you could play an evil game where you give yourself 10 points for every car you drive into ... and 50 points for every human you take down ... but, this act of free will most likely will land you a "Go to Jail ... Do not pass GO" sentence.

Sometimes an unseen force will delay/ stop you from getting to your destination like an Avalanche on the Freeway which carries your car off the road down the mountain. In this case, your free will seems to be taken away, however, your reactions (before & after) will determine how you proceed when you've got control back. See, if you would have bough the car with the safety features (seat belt on, airbags, driving lessons in extreem conditions) & purchased good auto insurance, you'd have a greater chance of survival and getting your car back ===> eventually arriving at the ski resort ... while the cheep person (drives a Junker & no insurance) may get hurt/ killed with little options to help them.

So, most of our free will is like driving. We have a destination we want to go to ...we know the rules and natural laws ... and we do our best to get there ... while others take the hard road --- only to succumb to what the rest of us already know.

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Why we have free will: Which would you rather have ... a computer (full of information & great picutres) that will mindless bow to you repeating over & over "I love you" ... or a person who of their own free will to love you? God doesn't want mindless zombies ... he wants us to love him of our own accord.

Answer 2

There's no warranty if the universe was put back we'd make the same choices. That indicates predestination.

There are three choices

Free Will (selection)
Predestination (programming)
Random (arbitrary)

Arbitrary is the most universal and logical. Beef, chicken or pork, it doesn't really matter. Apples, peaches or pears. It doesn't really matter. All feed you, all provide proteins, nutrients and carbs. Any port in a storm.

Predestined you have no choice and even arbitrary is not a factor. Your body tells you strawberries and you'll search until you die and ignore all the apple and peach trees in the process until you find strawberries. You are a zombie.

Free Will, when a choice is presented you base that choice on your own personal set of factors and have the right to change your mind in the future when presented with the same choices. You're at an open bar and they offer you anything, you see a Heiniken and haven't had one in a while and love it, you ask for it. In an hour you notice a bottle you've never heard of or seen and decided to become adventurous so you ask for that instead of the Heiniken, for in another hour you can get a Heiniken if you really want to.

If everyone is PREDESINTED, then EVERYONE is saved for it would be a pretty MEAN GOD that MAKES an individual a murderer and then sends them to hell for GOD'S WILL not their will.

If everyone is predesinted then be ready to sit between Adolph Hitler and the Grand Wizard of the KKK once you are in heaven.

Or is it your view if God makes you a homosexual pedophile who murders his victims and then CONDEMS you to hell for it, when you had no choice because GOD made you that way, do you think that's FAIR and JUST!

Answer 3

In the theological sense, free will has nothing to do with brain states and sensory inputs and illusions. In fact, it's not even an issue within the mainstream Christian religions/denominations. It only has to do with whether man has the ability to look to God for salvation. Too many people think that if you don't have the ability to choose God, then this cascades into all of free will and amounts to fatalism, which is not supported by the theology that is commonly associated with it, i.e. Calvinism. There is a branch of Calvinism called hyper-Calvinism that involves predestination to hell as well as heaven, but this cannot be true since it makes God the author of sin and evil.

Answer 4

Well, Im a Christian and I will do my best to answer this question. You have probably already heard this response before and will leave you unsatisfied but it's the only answer I can provide you.

Now, let me begin by asking this: Can Scientists answer every question about evolution with perfect knowledge and understanding? Meaning is thier answer 100% correct because they know everything about science? Of course not, not one man on this planet knows more than 1/10 of one percent about all there is to know or learn. Scientists come up with theories and test them. Well, theories get proven wrong a LOT! Science isn't truth, it's just a process by which we try to discover truth.

With that said it allows me to answer your question without sounding like a moron who doesn't know crap about Christianity or science. Anyways, my answer to your question is: If the God in the Bible is all-knowing as he claims to be, then that means he knows a heck of a lot more than we do. So if the Bible says that we in fact do have a free will to make choices but yet at the same time says everything is predetermined before we were even born, then guess what? Then it's possible because God says it is. If my knowledge is not even a percent of what God knows then who shall I believe, Me or God?

As humans we will never be able to have answers to everything so how do you expect Christians to answer everything that God has said or done? We believe it because we have faith. We have faith that God tells us the truth, and so far He has lived up to his word. I don't understand everything God has done nor do I comprehend everything that he claims to be true. I guess what I'm saying is that although I don't understand the two concepts working together, I believe them to be true because I can't prove it to be wrong, and I can't do that because I don't have enough knowledge nor will I ever obtain that knowldge in this lifetime. It's not possible so why waste my time trying to figure things out that I will never have the answer too. Just like Evolutionists will never have a "true" scientific answer to the begining of the Universe. It's not possible to answer such a question with our knowledge!

Sorry that was long and I probably wasted my time but I get points for trying.

Answer 5

In terms of the 'free will' your talking about, meaning being the master of your destiny... I dont think that has anything to do with a belief system or religion. I think the universal law has some sort of blueprint set for everyone.

Answer 6

God Has set the Rules.God works thru Willing Believers.
Satan has to have A Willing Body to Work thru;
Ever so often God at His Will,Makes A Course Correction,
This is Hard for Man with his limited Brain to figure out.

Answer 7

I have free will. This is a concept which is rather impossible for those who "can't help themselves" to understand.

John 8:31-32

31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
(from New International Version)


Rom 8:1-3
8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.
(from New International Version)




1 Cor 6:12

12 "Everything is permissible for me"-but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"-but I will not be mastered by anything.
(from New International Version)

Do you have that kind of free will?

Answer 8

Hi XXL,

This is an interesting approach you maintain. You seem to suggest that everything that which is not proven to you regarding organized religion (although you couldn't possibly have acquired all knowledge regarding all faiths) is false as it is not proven to you.

Then you pose arguments in favor of mathematical analytics that have no substantiation in the vain you use them and cannot be proven as fact or truth and challenge others to explain where you are going wrong when you can not explain how you are going right.

This is curious. I can not begin to explain where you are going wrong because the mathematical theory you seem to think applies to everything (which in some applications is replicable) has never been successfully applied to human thought.

At least, my line of reasoning comes with the promise of confirmation to those who are willing to find out for themselves.

Regarding the specific question of "free will", it is a false concept of men. It does not appear in any scripture that I am aware of, only in the commentary of men who have misapplied terminology to a concept of truth. The concept of "free will" inharently is wrong in that it indicates "free" which is to be without cause or consequence. This is wrong by nature as all life forms are subgect to the laws of nature (which are the laws of God).

God granted us "will", the desire and ability to make decisions, but it is not without cause or consequence. We agree on the fact that all thought and action is subject to natural law. We disagree on the ability of one to act for oneself in the face of known or unrecognised conequence. In any case our will is not "free will".

My only explaination as to why so many think we have free will is that they have blindly followed the dogma of someone or some organization that promotes the falsehood. It is not logical, nor is it truth.

Answer 9

Would you feel the same way if your question was not tied to religion. Free will is free will. It's either free or it's not. Is freedom an illusion? If it is we are all in trouble.

Answer 10

choice is an illusion. obviously if there is a god, god knows the future, that means the future is set and unchangeable. therefore our actions are set and unchangable too. if our actions cannot be changed our choices are already made, thus we technically dont get to make them as they are already "made". we have to contiue this path...

otherwise revelations is wrong and our choices could lead us away from the revelations.

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