If so please explain how a person without the experiences they have could make the decisions that they do?....What I am trying to say is people are only capable of making decision based on the information they have....that is a very limited amount of free will for some people....don't ya think?
2007-07-26 00:49:55 · 25 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
How do you think you have free will ? Just because you make a choice does not mean it is a choice based on your "will" It is a choice based on your information.....if you have limited information does not matter....my point is that.....your not acting upon "free will" your acting upon your individual accumulation of information you have acquired....the same way a computer is programmed...it can only give you a response based on what information it has been given....does that mean a computer has free will or is it just picking the best answer it has on the data it has been given?
2007-07-26 01:04:13 · update #1
OK...For all of the people who have said I have a choice to do Gods will or not to do his will....What you are saying to me is that God gave me Free Will but wants me to use mine to do his???? Why would I do that?
2007-07-26 01:46:41 · update #2
One more thing...where am I getting the information of what Gods will is?
2007-07-26 01:48:32 · update #3
To Amber F.....Exactly my point is your ability to please give me JUST 1 EXAMPLE OF ANY DECISION YOU HAVE EVER MADE ON YOUR OWN AUTHENTIC INFORMATION!!!! JUST ONE! Every bit of your information has come from a source outside of yourself....even what you percieve as emotions or feelings or hot and cold...all of it is a reaction to the outside stimuli....none of it is authentically yours!!!!
2007-07-26 02:42:54 · update #4
To help make your point, there are thousands of children raising themselves in our society. Life as they know it is filled with trouble, as they are able to run the streets and do all of the bad things they want. Years later, so many of them end up in jail or dead because their parents didn't raise them at all. Whose to blame here: the parents or the children?
What real choices in behavior do these kids really have in life? Only those they learn amongst children like themselves and the grown ups who prey on them.
2007-07-26 00:54:38 · answer #1 · answered by renamed 6 · 3⤊ 2⤋
What are you saying? Is not having a "limited" amount of free will... free will?
Actually since you are in the religion section I will remind you that you have the choice to do Gods will or no to. It is your decision and which ever you must live with it. So you decide no to do His will... OK. I guess that works for some. For me it seems more like I have the choice and to accept and do His will is at times my free will choice and I cant blame Him if later it doesn't work out like it should. Knowing this I at times make the superior choice and so far the only regrets are that I dont know quite how to take advantage of these things.
2007-07-26 01:10:45 · answer #2 · answered by JORGE N 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Forbes it depends on your definition of what it means to be "intelligent". I don't think many people are "intelligent." And most don't possess a degree of free will, it is sort of an illusion to think one is in control. Most are conditioned, as you mention, such a extent of conditioning makes them reflexive to stimulus, makes them mechanical. Man does not truly act but rather reacts to external stimulation, so given the source of impulse a decision that is made by someone is often predictable, since man is on auto-pilot, organically. This conditioning goes down to the cellular level and although it is not the biggest reason why man is like this, conditioning, as in the experiences that has framed their mind or framed their filter that they view the world with, has a huge hand in it. The biggest factor is that there are laws which make everything deterministic and that keeps man mechanical.
But what you say has truth, a person given his experiences would not do much outside of them and if he does he is invoked, which means there is no action, just a reaction to stimulus. I, for one know there is genuine free will but at the same time things are deterministic, free will appears to me to be more in lines to navigating ones self rather then controlling, but this takes consciousness something that very few have. As an added point few understand the depth of decisions they make, or why they react the way they do.
Did you know Einstein was a determinist?
Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.
– Albert Einstein
2007-07-26 01:30:14 · answer #3 · answered by Automaton 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Free will is the ability to choose, regardless of what information they have or the consequences that come of it. Now an intelligent person will dig for as much information as they possibly can before making that choice, but the point is deciding as you see best without the control or influence of someone else.
2007-07-26 01:32:50 · answer #4 · answered by Amber F 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Using the same argument, intelligent people cant really believe in anything. Based on the limited information we all have, there is no way of knowing if our lives are pre-destined and we are following some great scheme, or if we are carving out our own futures for ourselves. The only thing we can be certain of in this world, is uncertainty. As descartes very apty put: "doubt everything".
Cheers!
2007-07-26 01:05:53 · answer #5 · answered by Menon R 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
What makes you think decisions need to be made based on any information, A or B I don't need to know the question to pick an answer and its still free will
2007-07-26 00:53:37 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
If that were true then you wouldn't make a bad decision.
I wish people would make "intelligent" decisions. Many are made by how they "feel" and not what they think.
Following what you said then you would only decide things that you know, and that would only be in areas that you study or experienced.
I think life is a little bigger than that for most of us. It's also a good reason to read.
2007-07-26 01:01:12 · answer #7 · answered by drawman03 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
I think you are very right here!
EVERY decision you make (and really NO Matter what!) is based on a choice :
to go left or right,
have a hamburger or chicken burger,
but also what to wear...what will my friends think?
I like to fit into my goth-friends circle but I also like classical music....etc....etc....
the thing is , you don't like to get bullied, laughed at, looked at, .....what ever, so you compromise!!!!
the ONLY people with a free will are the so called 'freaks' because they don't care (what others think of them)
and the eccentric (because they don't know that they are)!
2007-07-26 01:03:25 · answer #8 · answered by Deprie 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Mental capacities including other capacities are functioned mainly on both nature and nurture. In essence, our will is dependent on our diverse environments and our genetical mark-up.
Whether you are "intelligent" or not is immaterial to the operation of the concept of free will. Free will which is driven and expressed by choice is actually an objective concept while "intellectualism" as is widely believed today is also materially objective. Objective concepts are basically very limited.
Intellectuals as we know them today therefore do not only believe in free will but are also its chief proponents.
2007-07-26 01:06:26 · answer #9 · answered by comradechris 3 · 1⤊ 3⤋
I think free will is an illusion. We are a product of our environment, our psychology, our culture, and our genes.
Not everyone can carry a good tune, learn as quickly as others, be a good dancer, or have a knack for science or math.
We should live, however, as if we DO have free will, but keep in mind that for every action there is a consequence.
2007-07-26 00:53:36 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 2⤋