Can free will exist without a god?

Question

Are we not shaped by a seemingly infinite number of influences? Can science acount for free will?

Answer 1

I'd have to say from a non-religious veiw point (neither pro- or anti-God), free will cannot exist without God. The idea of God is that he gives purpose and then gives us the choice to follow or reject the purpose. Our actions can be free-willed (or they can still be predestined depending on your belief). Science and ant-God people however would argue that everything is already instictual... maybe not as strong as pre-destined, but everything I do is related to that sexual/survival/destructive instinct in humans, and thus a free will that escapes those bonds that I was born with is impossible to achieve.

Answer 2

Free will is an illusion. Free will does not exist in a structured society, because a structured society cannot exist with free will. As I understand is that free will is the capability of doing whatever you want to do. However, society, or religion will not allow a person to commit homicide if they so wished to do. Imagine a world where everyone would be allowed to do exactly what they wanted to, take what they wanted to regardless of concequence. Then there would be free will, but we would live in a very dangerous place.

So yes, free will can exist without god, but never with god.

Answer 3

To really answer this in any depth or with any real meaning, I would have to first fully understand what definition of "free will" and/or God is being used.

I do agree that we are "shaped" by many "influences".

Free Will may very well exist with or without God -- or that there being or not being a God really has has nothing to do with it in the way we think God is -- or in the way that has been proposed by this question.

As, from my observations and experience -- it appears that it is NOT God who determines whether we either have the freedom, willingness or ability to exercise it.

IT'S US!?!?!?!?!?

I know I can point to an almost endless number of examples where freedom does not exist to any appreciable extent as to allow or foster the exercise of free will.

I also have seen and experienced many situations throughout my life where people's perceptions have convinced them that they either don't have the freedom, ability and/or willingness to exercise their 'free will'.

So, if you can't or won't exercise it -- what's the difference if it exists or not? Or whether God exists or not?

And agan, I do not see what the existence or non-existence of God has to do with it? (or many such similar things for that matter).

And lastly -- and if I am not incorrect, I believe that it was science who was unable to come up with a "rationale" as to why certain atoms "spun" one way and others "spun" another. And the only explanation they could come up with was that it appeared that the atoms CHOSE which direction they would spin.

The "problem" (as it were) for science to reconcile "free will" is that this would mean that "things" could not be "pre-determined" or "faithfully reproduced".

If free will truly exists as a "principle", then one will come to understand that even God is bound by "law" and therefore is boudn by "free will" -- which (when properly understood) will lead one to understand that not even God can "do anything" to or for us WITHOUT our "permission".

Regards,

Answer 4

The problem with factoring God into the issue or concept of free will is this:

Many religious groups preach of an all-knowing, all powerful God who knows everything that happens and will happen. If this is true and God already knows everything that is going to happen then God already knows what choices we’re going to make, what paths in life we’re going to take. So basically, our lives are already cast in stone, so to speak. That being the case. it becomes nothing more than predestination. With predestination you have no will, no choice but to do what that God already knows you’re going to do.

Religious fanatics will denounce and try to downplay and biblically rationalize this major contradiction but they can’t. All they will do is turn a blind collective eye to the fact that we can’t have free will if this God already has decided (by allowing and controlling the future) what we are going to do.

Free will is simply having choices and having the mental frame of mind to pick from these choices. Predestination does not allow this.

Answer 5

Nothing can exist without either receiving it's existence from
an outside source, that is being perpetually held in existence
by another, or else by having it's essence the same as it's existence, in which case it does not need to be propped up.
All this extra stuff you are mentioning, along with many
respondents, sounds like pop-philosophy. An ancient argument, which requires that you understand the terminology, says that the intellect and will are powers of the soul,the soul being defined as the "first act" of your body.
If you are asking whether free will, and perhaps it's
companion,the intellect, are emergent properties of matter,
a sloppy trend in most popular science magazines , you can rightly ask whether there are any analyses to back up these
claims using established philosophical tools, which don't
seem to be grasped by many accomplished scientists.
Once again, if you want to prevent yourself from being
a total beginner in philosophical analysis, i recommend
that you acquaint yourself with the concepts and methods
of scholastic metaphysics which handles these questions
with ease.
Most of the sciences can barely balance their own checkbooks without trying to explain metaphysical realities.

Answer 6

Free will is actually an illusion; in principle, if you could record every influence that a person had encountered during his entire lifetime, you could determine how he would react in a given situation. But this is, of course, impossible; free will is a useful model, and accurate enough for any reasonable purpose. God has nothing to do with any of this -- or with anything else.

Answer 7

Yes, but will free God exist without cans?

Answer 8

the answer to the question is a question. do u think free will exist ? if one truly believes it exist then it will for the individual....if not then it will not exist.......for me of course it exist, free will is what allowed me to answer this question......... free will cannot exist if we cannot exist....for it is us who give definition to the words "free" and "will." science is like a skeptimistic optimistic study of what is, as more and more facts become validated more and more questions arise. I don't know if free will can exist without god because I myself have no believe or disbelief in terms of god's existence. As much as I want to believe in god's existence I am not going to use god as an excuse to be ignorant, irrational and selfish. I myself am a skeptimistic optimistic, one who wants to believe there is a god, but this desire and want isn't going to leave me sedated and lackadaisical in achieving some sort of peace. How much you wonder determines how far you wander.

Answer 9

Free will seems to exist and there is no proof of God, so yes science can account for free will. The question is "Is free will really free?"

Answer 10

Without a god, everything you would do would be your own free will. However, love cannot exist without a God. It is totally illogical in a being that evolved completely on its own. True evolution would cause an "every man/woman for him/herself" mentality. It makes no sense to take care of the weak or ill.