What the heck is free will?

Question

I thought it meant that you make your own choices or do whatever you want. If that's what it means, then of course it exists, I chose to get up today and I chose to ask this question.

Sorry but I don't know what people mean by free will. I might be ignorant but I need to know.

Someone mentioned the US government laws. So what? It's illegal to kill someone but if I wanted to do it, I would. I have broken the law many times, I have shoplifted because I wanted to.

What confuses me is why some people don't believe in it.

You're choosing to breathe right now, you can stop if you want.

You're choosing to come to this site and read this sentence.

You make choices everyday, what does it have to do with religion?

I chose to be an atheist.

Answer 1

But it's much more interesting than just "doing what I want." There are so many interesting questions.

For example:

1. If God knows everything, and therefore knows the future and every last thing you are going to do in life, then do you have free will? I.e. if God knows you're going to pick up the red ball, are you "free" to pick up the blue ball instead?

2. If God is omnipotent can can *cause* you to do anything, then do you have free will? Or is that why God "grants" you free will, by refraining from controlling your actions?

3. If something startles you, and you jump, was that an act of free will? You did not execute a "choice" in the action, your body jumped involuntarily.

4. If the brain is just a bunch of molecules with electrical impulses traveling around, and if these all follow strict laws of physics, then is a decision you are about to make *predetermined* by the current state of the molecules in your brain? You might *think* you're going to just make a decision at a whim ... but isn't that very *thinking* part of your mental state, and is therefore also predictable?

5. If time travel is ever invented, can you go back and do things differently the second time around? Can you change events in the past? If so, doesn't that rob people living in the past of their free will? As you watch people doing things that you know they're going to do, are you aware that they're sense of free will is just an illusion? (See #1.)

Etc. etc. I don't mean people to answer these questions ... I'm must pointing out that there are a lot of interesting questions that arise.

Answer 2

The problem of free will is whether or not rational agents imagine or really do exercise control over their own actions and decisions. Addressing this problem requires understanding the relation between freedom and causation, and determining whether or not the laws of nature are causally deterministic. The various philosophical positions taken differ on whether all events are determined or not—determinism versus indeterminism—and also on whether freedom can coexist with determinism or not—compatibilism versus incompatibilism. So, for instance, hard determinists argue that the universe is deterministic, and that this makes free will impossible.

In essence, are you a moist robot ticking along your program like the rest of us moist robots, or are we free to choose differently at any moment? I'm a compatibilist. Read up on the source link.

Answer 3

As a Chapelite, Pathfinder and Fizza, said that it is, But, when you choose break the law what happen. Soon or later they will catch you and then you will be punish and then you will suffer, and you cannot blame the Government for that, because it has been your choice. The same way people are breaking God's law, and then they blame God for all suffering that is going on in this world.

Answer 4

Some People hear that GOD Knows Everything.
HE does.
So, they think that just because HE knows the Future, HE makes it come out that way.
Nope.
Just because HE knows the Results of all of Our Decisions, dosen't mean HE made us Choose what to do in Those Decisions.
See?

Everything we make a decision to do, changes Billions upon Billions of Outcomes.
We do the Deciding (Free-Will) and GOD Calculates all of the OutComes of Those Decisions.
Pretty Intense, Ain't it?
Don't Think too long on this, just Excercise your Free-Will for Good all of the Time and you will get Blessed (good Results) all of the Time.
Hope this helps.
Ditto......................

Answer 5

You are right, but it means more to me, as not allowing things to get to me, or like, what the heck!!! what were you thinking. So I guess it depends on the context it is used.

Free will, means that you have a choice in how you respond to every situation you deal with, no one can make any decision for you, they can suggest but the ultimate decision is up to you. God gives us free will (he does not make us do anything, only suggest) so you do have free will, it is what you do with it that matters. Hope this makes sense.

Answer 6

The principle of free will has religious, ethical, and scientific implications. For example, in the religious realm, free will implies that an omnipotent divinity does not assert its power over individual will and choices. In ethics, it may imply that individuals can be held morally accountable for their actions. In the scientific realm, it may imply that the actions of the body, including the brain and the mind, are not wholly determined by physical causality.

Answer 7

I wouldn't call it "free will" - more appropriately it should be called "agency". We were all given the gift of agency.
"Free" will does not exist because every choice we make has a consequence - whether that be good or bad. So, really, it's not "free" because we are still accountable for every single thing we do or think...

Answer 8

It is the fact that God has given each and every one of us FREE WILL, but we are EACH responsible for how we use it and WILL surely give account for what we have done when we go into eternity and stand before God, .....

The secular humanists, et al, will tell you to do what you want and
live how you want because there is no God and there is no Hell...
but do you REALLY want to trust your eternal soul to people who think that you're no better than an animal and have no real human
dignity or conscience.....????

Look at the doctrine of communism.
They thought that people werenot smart enough to be free and therefore did not deserve to be free to decide their own fate....That lie comes straight from satan himself....

God does not take CHOICE away from anyone or FORCE His love or His presence on to ANYONE....He will not force anyone to go to Heaven against their will.

Nobody on this earth has the RIGHT to take ANYONE'S freedom of choice from them by any means or for any reason.
Believers CANNOT take anyone's FREE WILL away. They are only telling you about the CHOICE that is yours to make before you leave this world and go into eternity....The same choice that we had.
It is satan who would take man's choice away. Not God.
When adam sold us out to satan in the garden of eden, sin and death came into the world. We were not given a choice. We were
born with a fallen nature -- spiritual death - and condemned to hell
because that is what SATAN wants for mankind. To destroy us all
in his hatred towards God....but when God sent His Son to die in our place to redeem us and to save us from the fate that satan would condemn us to -- eternal hell - God gave us a choice.

Just imagine back in the time when there was slavery in the u.s and there were slave auctions.
What if someone came and BOUGHT ALL OF THE SLAVES and
then told them that they could go FREE!!!
They were no longer under any bondage and could decide their own fate in life....
God did not send His Son into this world to die and then turn around to enslave us as satan did.

Imagine...you are on death row and you have been given a total pardon, but you refuse that pardon, for whatever reason, and so the execution goes on as scheduled, even when it didn't have to .
Whose fault is it if you die....???

No, you are not ignorant....and I hope this helps!!!!

GOD BLESS YOU!!!

If you would like to know more, please call this number for 7OO CLUB..... 1-800-759-0700 and talk with someone about any other
questions you might have.....

Answer 9

The ability to obey or disobey the will of God. Some people think that the choices we make are pre-decided by some higher power, but don't get too mixed up with that, it will make you go mad, a bit like the phrase "I think therefore I am" where people think that if they stop thinking they will cease to exist (weirdos)!!

Answer 10

Freedom to make the choices that we make in life that bring us spiritual growth.

Love and blessings Don