Not just from a religious perspective.
How often do we actually possess all necessary information before making a choice? Or how many times are we right in thinking that we possess true and not false information, before making a specific choice?
(ok, if you do not want "random choice", take "biologically/subconsciously caused choice" instead)
2007-03-15 08:13:54 · 16 answers · asked by Trillian, Moon Daisy 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
well, is this is a choice at all? Do we not make these decisions based on previous inputs and states? (i.e. do we really have the choice or was our decision, although unknown to us beforehand, already going to be whatever we ended up choosing)?
free will concerns whether 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.
From my perspective, free will is illusion. I strongly feel there _should_ be free will but I have no solid ground to prove it on. But I'm still looking :P
2007-03-16 03:45:54 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your "random choice" as you call it is your fate brought by the immediate environment when you were born and you do not have choice yet. As you grow up and starts to know what you want and what you need, then you make a choice as to whether you will have to make a change in your pattern or stay where you believe is your comfort zone. Sometimes you think to go along with the current and sometimes you think it will make a difference to go against it. You choose which road to travel through your journey in life and you make your own destiny with that. Your failure or your success will always depend on your judgement over the choices laid down to you. There are outside forces however that may affect your choice and that is the reason why you are given the intelligence to weigh things before you act. Your mind is equipped with the logical and the intuitive; harness the ability to use any of the two as needed. Using too much logic may cause a delay and too much intuition may be too rush to a haphazard result.
2007-03-15 08:34:38 · answer #2 · answered by Rallie Florencio C 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Free will is the act of choosing, not the information involved in the choice.
Scenario: You like a brand of candy bar. You don't have money. You steal one. You don't get caught, but it's stale.
You had the information you needed to make the choice, but would have chosen differently with different information.
As for the main issue of determinism, quantum physics offers the best evidence for true free will. The fact is that the quantum states of matter will influence the configuration of neural receptors of the brain. If these quantum states are not predetermined as is suggested by the uncertainty principle, determinism is not the law of the universe.
2007-03-15 08:44:38 · answer #3 · answered by novangelis 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sometimes you just have to "go with your gut" when making a choice and you are not sure of the quality of the information.
You still have free will to make whatever choice you make regardless the information you possess at the time.
2007-03-15 08:27:00 · answer #4 · answered by dan c 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Experience is something we get only AFTER we needed it.
The amount of information we have does not affect our ability to make a choice, only our ability to make a GOOD choice.
I have never understood what free will / predestination has to do with religion or atheism. Both concepts only exist in thought since there is no way to measure or change them.
2007-03-15 08:17:53 · answer #5 · answered by Dharma Nature 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Freedom to choose is a moot point. There at any given moment only one choice that is actually made. It cannot be changed because it already happened. You cannot prove that you could make another choice.
2007-03-15 08:21:39 · answer #6 · answered by Magus 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's not random. YOur choice is the natural and only choice YOU would make (soemone else would make a different one, as they have different background). Your "choice" is just the natural result that increases entropy in the world. Unsatisfying but true.
2007-03-15 08:18:57 · answer #7 · answered by Jedi 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Regardless of how much information you have, you are still making the choice. No one else is forcing you. Thus, free will.
2007-03-15 08:23:29 · answer #8 · answered by CYNTHIA 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Random choice and free will are two different concepts, one says that someone can choose, the other is choice itself and in that lies the difference.
2007-03-15 08:20:38 · answer #9 · answered by Haz the Preacher 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You don't need to have all the information.
It's not INFORMED CHOICE.
It's FREE WILL
A girl offers your her breasts to fondle. It's FREE WILL that lets you touch them or NOT.
Do you think about it.
You you PONDER that maybe you are using her
Do you PONDER that maybe she came from an abused childhood and NEEDS to be fondled to be LOVED and that maybe you are NOT helping her at all.
Of course not.
She's offering her boobs and you want to feel them, so you do or you don't.
It's THAT SIMPLE.
If you don't, you're telling her YOU ARE NOT JUST BOOBS TO ME, you can easily say, hey, they're real nice, but I want to get to know you first and then if we really get along maybe we'll commit and I can fell them and feel better about feeling them and maybe you'll feel better about it too!
Free choice.
2007-03-15 08:35:46 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋