True or false: "Free will" does not exist. It is all cause and effect.?

Question

Proof:
Einstein: " God does not play dice with the universe." In other words, there is no randomness, it's all predetermined.
Ambrose Pierce: " Accident: An inevitable occurrence due to the action of immutable natural laws."
What is going to happen is already predetermined and it's inevatable. Free choice is out of the question!

Answer 1

Free will exists along side of cause and effect.

Denial of free will can justify great evil, "Oh, it is God's will that I kill my family." No reasonable person accepts this rationalization.

God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions.

"God willed that man should be 'left in the hand of his own counsel,' so that he might of his own accord seek his Creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him."

http://www.nccbuscc.org/catechism/text/pt3sect1chpt1art3.htm

+ Example +

I have a small child, I know and love this child with all my heart and mind. This child looks at a cookie on the table. I know this child well enough that I know she will take the cookie. The child takes the cookie. Does the child have free will or did I force the child to take the cookie?

God loves and knows us infinitely more than I know that child. Is it not reasonable that God knows what we will do and still not force our actions?

+ With love in Christ.

Answer 2

Not sure whether you're talking about a theological or a philosophical concept here. Theologically, free will is not disputed among major mainstream Christian faiths. We all have the ability to make day-to-day decisions. However, what is in dispute is whether we can look to God for salvation. Some people think that we do have a sin nature but yet a spark of ability to seek out God. Others do not believe that at all, God must come to us. I belong to the latter camp, so that means an answer of no and no to your question. No, free will does not exist. No, it is not all cause and effect either.

Answer 3

Free will has nothing to do with a dice throw, other than HOW you choose to do it. Left handed, right handed, with a twist of the wrist, fast, slow.

That's free will.

For EVERYTHING to be totally pre-determined is to say we are robots in the Matrix.

In that case there IS not need for religion for God is pulling the strings and nothing you say, think or do matters, because GOD put that thought in your head.

Hence at the end of times God owes EVERYONE a trip to heaven, because NONE OF US has a say in what we do in the world.

This seems to be totally at odds with the Bible as a whole.

It dictates that YOU will not follow the Anti-Christ but GOD forces you to follow the Anti-Chirst, hence GOD forces the mark of the beast on you.

Then GOD throws you back to the rivers of fire!

Cause and effect is valid, BUT you are presented with choices of reaction to that cause.

Cause and effect

When struck on the RIGHT CHEEK

Jesus then presents an alternative to a knee jerk reaction ingrained into the Jewish phiolosphy of an eye for an eye.

You CHOOSE to follow it or not.

You choose to offer the left cheek or punch out the guys lights.

Humans are, by and large, reactionaries.

Jesus presented alternative CHOICES and ACTIONS.

Your free will is to go with these and even to develop other althernatives just as good if not better.

Answer 4

Perhaps, but that would be irrelevant to us anyway.

What you have in mind is that there is no free will, because if we understood all of the chemistry and physics involved in brain reactions, then we would know exactly what a person is about to think and what they are about to do. (Including whether they believe we are free or not).

However, since such a model can only be conceived of in abstracto (I.e. We can't actually grasp such a complex model in its entirety), we would never know all of the determinants involved. Even if we did, this knowledge itself would become another determinant and we would have to review this incredibly complex model. So what we've got, really, is only the idea that in theory, we are determined.

Or, look at it in another way. This is a problem because you think of your consciousness as the result of a series of causation. What if I posit consciousness as a absolute? I accept these causes as being part of me. My brain is not some object of which I am the toy. My brain is an integral part of who I am, just as my body is. So my brain reactions do not determine me, they are me. Sure, I interact with the outside world, but there wouldn't be much freedom to be had if there was no outside world to react to. It really is a question of how you define your identity.

Answer 5

These quotations of yours are both from the time before Heisenberg, almost a century behind the times. You'd better get up to date. The whole idea of determinism has been seriously modified by chaos theory.

Your so-called "proof" concerns something that is unprovable in principle. Does "free will" exist? Does God exist? These things are not open to "proof."

Answer 6

Two quotes don't constitute a proof.
It's true that everything is based on cause and effect. Even if you were to flip a coin, the way you flip it could be predicted based on biological and environmental factors. But that doesn't mean we don't have free will. We still make choices, it's just that there are always reasons for those choices.

Answer 7

Sin? In Exodus 20:17 God instructions that we could desire to not covet our neighbor's slaves, nor something that belongs to him. What God did not command it truly is for all of those servants to acquire their freedom. So now and lower back God has some humorous regulations, and that they don't constantly seem to coincide straight away with what we deliberate to be the optimal attainable morality. yet as quickly as we return on your question, and eliminate all of trimmings, you ask, "What injury does the 'sins' in Christianity reason?" Oh they have large potential to do injury! homicide is tremendously undesirable, specific. yet what approximately different sins? Exodus is marvelous for sins. 22:18 Says kill all the witches. Eeek. This commandment could have truly led to some issue if absolutely everyone stricken to verify it. Oh they did? Oh hell. 22:19 is extra appropriate. Sexually abuse animals? death penalty! See, there is powerful stuff in the bible! 22:25 Says do not can charge pastime while lending money. LOL! Who does God think of he's speaking to? 23:13 Says do not even point out the names of alternative gods. So comparitive religious analyze seem top out. Wow on 2d thought, this finished sin element looks a splash ordinary to me.

Answer 8

False! God gave Adam & Eve the choice of free will in the Garden of Eden. Thay had their choice to eat from all of the Good fruit trees and was told not to eat from the evil one. But because they allowed there curosity (satin) to over power they had eaten from the evil fruit tree. That is proof right there that we do have free will. We've had free will since the beginning of time.Even though God knows before hand and also gives us warning signs from rights& wrongs he still allows us to choose & make the disions & mistakes about which way that we are wanting to go and who we are wanting to follow in our lives. I believe that if there wasn't any free choices in life then there would be no wrongs for us to worry about.. God wants all of us to choose and follow his path of righteousness of our own free will. If we choose to follow satin's path that is our decision not Gods.

Answer 9

Where we are and where we were and where we are heading. Where we were... think of the movie quest for fire.... nature and humans working things out on nature's terms... it wasn't so long ago that it existed in north america either... before the europeans came and damaged the natural world.... don't forget you people under the guise of chrisitanity or salvation are still doing the same thing... thinking we are deprived without tv or education... we those living with nature alone have a freer will than those of you living in your anal over governmented anestatized societies... We are freer so please don't save us anymore... Where we are..... you live in a world commanded or ruled by control freaks... your governements make so many laws that interfere with your freedoms that you are all monkeys in a barrel... what does it matter if one is gay... what does it matter if someone smokes... it's your fear of smoking killing you not my smoke... what does it matter to you if I drink... if I decide to wear a seat belt... free speach... tell me why free speach only exist for those preaching the right to bare arms and own guns guns guns... big governments.. making it against the law to raise your own children, making it against the law to build a house on an empty piece of land.. making it against the law to be free... PEOPLE WHO SEEK TO DO NO HARM NEED NO LAWS. you gave up your free will by selling yourselves up to your religions and governments.... life was better before your societies of everything and everyone has to be owned.... where we are headed hopefully back before the control freaks took over ... you fear global warming... you are only fearing god... nature fighting back.... accept that humanity is on the wrong path because you let a few people control you through your governments and religions and walk away... stop co operating with their rules... they can't stop you all in Nature
PEOPLE WHO SEEK TO DO NO HARM NEED NO LAWS

Answer 10

I think there is a destiny- but we don't know what it is, so we make choices that we think we CHOSE. When in reality it was already written that we would choose them. So, free will, I think is an illusion.

Then again, there is another opinion of mine.

"No matter how many ways you go, you will always end up in the same place."

Another words, everything comes full circle, and no matter which way you go, you have only one destiny.

Who knows? Love the quotes. :)