Is there free will?

Question

I've asked this in Religion and Spirituality and got a bunch of nonsense answers. So I'm asking it here, too. My question is, do you think that good deeds are only good if you choose to do them, and sin is only sinful if you choose to commit it? And if you go to heaven or hell, where sin / good deeds cannot be commited, wouldn't that really take away some of the impact?

Tu Nga, you seem to be answering a question (repeatedly) that you would rather answer than the one I asked.

Answer 1

I really wish to answer your question in a logical way but I hope that it will not exasperate your feelings if I don't get it right. Let me try first to define some notions.
Without going into too much detail, good exists; bad or evil is the absence of good. It is non-existence. For example kindness which is a moral virtue and is considered good, exists. Cruelty which is bad or evil is just the absence of kindness.
The reality of man is spiritual not material. Therefore the purpose of life is to acquire moral virtues that will allow us to progress in the spiritual worlds. Just as the organs that we developed in the "womb world" and were apparently of no use there, allowed us to live and progress in this physical world without being handicapped.
Heaven and hell are not places where we will be going to but states of spiritual progress. To be far from reality is to be in hell.
In this physical world we have the opportunity to develop the tools that we need for progress in the spiritual worlds where our progress continues, these are moral virtues. But unlike the womb world where the development of our physical body was not dependent on us, in this physical world we have the free will to choose whether we want or not to develop our moral virtues.

Answer 2

Yes a good deed is a good deed. Sin is more complicated. Some sins you can just think about and it would be sinful.
Jealousy,greed, and envy are what I'm talking about.
*I am budhist and heres my interpertation.
This is all relative to Karma and this is how karma really works.
Its not that you do something good and good things come back to you, its like this, when given a situation, which path is the better path to walk? example,you find a wallet, keep the money inside and dump the wallet or return all of it to the owner?
When you make a decision it creates negative or positive karma. After you pass on the karma influences where you go. Good karma rewards you to either reincarnate or you will be sent to (a) heaven. Bad karma will send you to (a) Hell to pay off all the negative karma you created. Bluntly put, what you do here will decide how you will spend in your after life.
In terms of free will, basically that's what separates us from the animals. We are blessed with it and so it can be taken away. Again negative karma can "demote" you when you pass, instead of reincarnating as a human you will come back as an (instinct reacting) animal.
In short be good.

Answer 3

im not religious but i do believe that we all have the ability to choose between good and bad.what one person sees as a sin someone else may not.prostitution for example can be seen as a sin by some .others believe it to be ok as long as its not on their doorstep. most people have double standards with different issues.i dont believe all people in heaven are perfect, i think the hell story (as i said not religious!)for me only really should apply to murderers for example... not someone who's made a few mistakes and fallen off the wagon so to speak.good deeds are good no matter how they happen. if you can do a nice thing every day without expecting anything in return that makes you feel better to.no-one should be obliged to do things if they really dont want to.some people are born helpers and others need coaxing... that doesnt make one better than the other, just different.how do we know sins are not commited in heaven? no-ones ever made it back to tell us....

Answer 4

It is funny that I displease you again.
Who in religions tell you that people are responsible for the deeds they don't intentionally perform?
Yes, the meaning of free will is that you are responsible for what you choose to do or not to do. The choice of good is heaven, the choice of evil is hell; no religions teach the reverse.
The problem here is that we human beings don't create ourselves, so we don't have absolute free will. God, our Creator sets the standards for what is good. If right in the beginning, we choose human criteria for good, we are already responsible for that choice. We cannot use our free will freely, but we must learn to use it with some restrictions: our body cannot jump out of a high building without a parachute or some other gadgets like such, but our mind can freely jump out from Mars.

Answer 5

You're asking a lot of questions all rolled into one.
The basics, as I understand, are whether free will/choice is an option we have or if it's all predestined?
For centuries the question of 'libero arbitrio' has plagued us as intelligent, philosophical humans and it still does.
My view is a bit of both. Whether free will /choice really exists matters little, since we cannot predict or know our future. Pro free will believers say that we have a choice in how we conduct ourselves and therefore have the single-minded power to decide where we want to go.
Martin Luther believed, preached and taught that free will doesn't exist; that our lives are pre-decided, predistined and were therefore basically out of our hands. Whether God exists or not (depending on personal beliefs) can be the crux of our actions in this regard. For example, fear of God and his judgement may influence how we behave in life because we may fear the outcome of a painful hell. We can argue whether this is 'true goodness' of course, or just fear, but in many cultures, it works in as far as keeping potentially bad, evil, violent etc actions, at bay: through fear of hellish afterlife.
In other societies, maybe the growing western one, people seem to care less, perhaps through other influence or loss of faith, but one thing seems to be in common: our upbringinnig, parental influence, childhood experiences etc. and that's difficult to overcome or get away from once adults.

To end (at last!!!) I think it's a bit of both. Whether free will/choice/libero arbitrio exists or not matters little. If it does exist, then we act accordingly thinking we're in control (even if we may not be); if it doesn't and it's all predestined by a higher power, then our choices were part of the predestination anyway: we just don't know about it so classify it as 'Free Will' Eitherway, we choose!!

Answer 6

there is free will.

there are cynics out there who believe that we all have a map in our bodies and that we are predestined. They believe no amount of good will help the human race.

Little do they know that there exists universal truths that if one takes the time to sit down and let everything go, they will start to appear.

Which goes back to your question above if good deads/bad deeds are only true if done. My answer is yes, actions, bringing it forth whether verbally/physically does have an impact to the cosmic universe. Have you ever read about the butterfly effect?

Answer 7

If god exists and he is all knowing then you don't have freewill. Freewill is simply the ability to choose something unanticipatable. If any decision you make can be predicted ahead of time with 100% certainty then you don't have freewill. You are simply a machine that excepts input does a calculation of some kind and spits out an output. If god is all knowing he can anticipate all your decisions with 100% certainty then you don't have freewill.

So it's kind of up to you. If you believe god is all knowing then there is no freewill, if you believe you have freewill then you can't believe god is all knowing. If you want answers that make more sense then that don't bother with religion, try googling atheism, and some of the arguments for it.

Answer 8

Yes, but I cannot tell you how because it is nonsense!0!

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Matt.7.13-14

Something like this happens with Free Will; which is that narrow gate.

Good luck with that!0!

Answer 9

Free will and sins are religious concepts.
I prefer to use the logic and try to understand the nature around me.

Answer 10

Here you will just find more nonsense.

I was compelled to say that.