Do you believe Free Will Exists?

Question

I don't.

I think the entire Universe is pre-programmed. The reason I think this is because every physical process is calculable. Therefore, if someone knew the precise location of every single particle at the beginning of the Universe, one could calculate the future.

Everything that has ever happened could have been predicted, even our actions.

Our actions are controlled by molecules in our bodies and brains, and many of those are based on other events that happened around us.

But is you knew the location of every particle since the beginning of time, you could predict everything, including our actions.

There is no free will. It's all pre-programmed.

We fool ourselves by thinking we have a "free will" to make a decision, but whatever decision you make was already pre-determined based on all the particles in the Universe.

"Your decision" to either answer or ignore this question is not really your decision. Whichever the case, the particles of the Universe made you do it...

Good answer Big Super,

I thought about Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle too, but the limits it presents are only due to our human limitations, which of course go way beyond just that. Just because we can not measure the momentum and location simultaneously, does not mean that a quarks behavior is not predictable on a sub-atomic level. It's just something that's beyond our human capabilities due to our large size compared to sub-atomic particles.

Answer 1

Free will cannot exist if you believe in an omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-benevolent gawd.

Here's why!

For you to have free will, you can do anything you want. Now, rewind for me about a 15 BILLION years. If your god is omniscient, meaning he knows all, then he will know 15 billion years into the future every action you will ever make. Everything. All. No secrets, no surprises. He will know when you scratch your butt. Now, you tell me, do you really have free will when your entire life has already been pre-written? I mean, because God knows the future, he knows who who and who won't go to Heaven. So now we ask, "Can gawd be omni-benevolent if he knows people will be born billions of years from now and go to Hell"? Why doesn't he do something to stop this? In other words, gawd ALLOWS the creation of souls for the sole purpose of filling Hell.

You don't stand a chance. He knows all. You can't surprise gawd. Go ahead and try. Hold out your hand and do something with it that would surprise gawd. It doesn't matter what you do. He already knows, because it's already happened, because you DO NOT have free will.

Answer 2

You are describing Newtonion physics. That is, if you know the location and the momentum of every particle, you will be able to calculate exactly what will happen, i.e. predict the future.

Unfortunately, Newtonion physics does not hold true on the level of the very small, on a quantum level where quarks interact. Quarks make up protons and neutrons (electrons are a different story - but I won't go into that here).

Heisenburg's Uncertainty Principle states that you can know the position of a quark, or you can know the direction of a quark, but you cannot observe both with certainty, as by observation, you alter the quark. This is the basis of string and quantum theories.

What does this mean? It means that since you cannot accurately measure a quark, it is impossible to predict the future. Since by measuring a quark, you change it, you have the ability to change how the universe functions on a fundamental level.

Since you can change the universe on a fundamental level, and that decision to change is a choice, Free Will, ergo, exists.

Answer 3

The idea that the universe is calculable is incorrect. Check out schrodenger's cat for starters, then a little quantum physics will blow your mind. Ultimately, it's dismissed simply because the functioning of consciousness, which we assume is making the choices to begin with, is almost a complete unknown and is likely unknowable, and therefore may very well contain the 'chooser'.

The argument that, since God knows the future, there is no free will, is likewise flawed. Assume you do have free will. If I ***magically**** came to know what you will choose and didn't even tell you, how does that rob you of your free will? It's just me knowing how that free will, will express itself.

On the other hand, the argument that we clearly make choices, so we must have free will, is also flawed. The announcement of a choice has no relationship to whether or not that choice was made with volition. IOW, the announcement of a choice may be as 'programmed' as any other behavior of an indivual that has no free will.

This is, in fact, what occurs. If you watch your thoughts, you'll see that they arise spontaneously. There's nobody who chooses to think that thought. The thought just happens and comes from Consciousness itself. As such, there is no free will, but not for the reason you believe.

Answer 4

you are absolutely right.
we are all living in an illusion of freedom, but none of us chose to be 'here' , 'now'. We were only conceived because of a variety of causes and effects that happened well outside of any individual control, as the person before, as the person before...

It is a disturbing concept, but I can see no other possibility. The ideas of accident, chance, not actually being real, the idea that we are doomed or blessed to whatever fate we have in store. You couldn't have 'done that instead', or 'I would have rather..' Because ONE of those two flavors of ice cream HAD to be chosen, as there is no way to reverse a decision already sculpted in time.

The question then becomes, WHAT programmed the universe and does it UNDERSTAND and EMPATHIZE with human's total inability to see past the 'now'? Our internal struggles are so real to us, and most of them stem from us not TRULY knowing what started us all, and our external struggles, like war, come mainly from the disparity between opinions on that very question. That is why life has always been a journey of discovery, an ongoing discussion of ourselves.. and in that sense, we are 'free' in that each new discovery is so pure to the person who discovers it...it's that purity, that very lack of knowledge, that makes us human -- even if it was written in stone long before we ever 'decided' anything.

Is life all an elaborate hoax perpetrated on unwitting humans for another's amusement? A narrative? Random quantum generators? An epic biblical battle? Could we even begin to understand what 'it' is, if we were told, as a human concept, within our realms of rationality? If we had some idea of what lies on the path ahead, how could this world possibly function? It couldn't, and that's why it's so perfect.

Answer 5

We use our previous reviews and found out behaviors to base our destiny movements. yet we are able to effect a reliable share of our previous reviews and overwrite our found out behaviors by using adjusting them with different movements. and a very good kind of achievable movements we are able to do compete with others interior the comparable problem; it incredibly is the accepted reason that ethical dilemmas exist. this suggests that 2 comparable human beings, raised in comparable places with comparable genetics, having comparable reviews and behaviors, may well be in a position in a minimum of adequate important (and a very good kind of extra insignificant) options to logically end 'unfastened will'. --- And it technically does contain a god because of the fact if there's a god that's familiar with our movements earlier than time, then no there is not any "will" to be unfastened. Likewise if there is "karmic retribution" or another **** (including Heaven/Hell) for our options then our will isn't "unfastened", So the solutions some human beings supply would be based upon those understandings.

Answer 6

No. The mind is merely an emergent behavior of the brain, which is completely described by the laws of physics.

However, you might want to recognize that it's not quite deterministic, it's stochasitic. As far as we can determine, quantum randomness really genuinely is RANDOM. So the universe would be properly described as superpositions of classical states.

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I love how many people think that choices mean there's free will.

Me: Computer, ask me for a number. If it's three, tell me it's three, otherwise, tell me it's not three.

Computer: Please give me a number.

Me: 3.

Computer: It is three.

A choice was made. But do computers have free will?

Answer 7

Technically, all correct, but we still have free will. Difficult to explain... I'll say.. It's not programmed. What happens will happen because of what has already happened, but there is no pure way to go.. Everything is just a chain of events, and everything is influenced by something else, which is typically the best free will can be (how you are influenced). There's no resisting what will happen, and there's no telling what will, just what has.

Answer 8

So you believe there is a god. God is like a parent watching his children. He gives you the choice to do right or wrong. But, like many parents, he knows what you are going to do because he knows you. As far as particles are concerned, part of what you wrote I agree with. Our bodies and brains are made of molecules/chemicals that change our mood and behavior when their relationships are changed. This is not the first time I've heard your type of thoughts. I've also heard the energy field theory and the "balls" of gas theory. I guess someday we'll all get to see who's right. All I know is that I've seen many people die-mostly when they do, they pray to God to forgive them and accept them.

Answer 9

Every physical process is calculable, but you are still the one that has to calculate it.

One could calculate the future, if one so freely wishes.

It is my decision to answer this question because I believe you are on an unstable platform of reasoning involving your knowledge of the mind and it's mode of thinking. I could have ignored this question, but because I am nice, I forced myself to answer it.

Answer 10

If there is a God then there is no free will that's for sure.

I think we do have free will since we do irrational things. Like wasting time on yahoo answers. If it was a process we would be more machine like constantly working towards a common goal. I think our mind can generate pure randomness.