Why would someone believe in free will, when it doesn't exist?

Question

Volition

Is a choice whereby there is choice, but laws limit it. Such as, water poured at the top of a hill. It is free to run down the hill in whatever direction, however, it WILL run downhill due to the effect of gravity. It cannot run uphill.

Free Will

Free will states that choice is made, regardless of law. You must realize that this is a misnomer, and therefore does not exist, except in your own mind. Don’t believe me? Then I say, go ahead and take off and fly, like Superman……I’m waiting.

Perhaps I did post this question quickly, paraphrasing a teaching I’d recently read. If the meaning is unclear, I will make another effort to clarify.

Choices are available freely in this life, but established perimeters and laws restrict those choices. Therefore, you do not have free will, due to the fact that no matter how freely you choose the offered options, your choice is ultimately limited and therefore not free.

I am not a philosophy student. I am also NOT: Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2 Timothy 3:7)

Answer 1

Hi, new friend-
The will of unregenerate man is free- in regards to righteousness.
Unless the Holy Spirit intervenes, our wills are enslaved to sin.

Answer 2

Freewill is actually defined a bit differently than that. There is a debate about whether our brains are ultimately deterministic or not. Determinism means that for any give stimulus, we have the same response. A non-deterministic system might have one of many responses given a certain stimulus. The controversy is whether the actions of a person is predictable given the experiences the person has.

It turns out that the universe is probably non-deterministic. When you get down to a small enough level quantum events seem to follow a probabistic path without any specific cause for the path taken.

In your water down the hill example, the path the water takes at a fork might depend on if more water molecules decide to veer left or right. Because of the chaotic nature of water, a small molecule may cause a ripple which affects a much larger set of molecules. This is called the butterfly effect. And that molecule may shift based on quantum movement.

There have been systems set up with water wheels that demonstrate this. The wheel is designed to randomly turn right or left and change direction when water flows over it. In this chaotic system, it is the random quantum fluctuations in the water flow which cause it to move.

Answer 3

Allow me to inform with atmost respect and good intention. Becasue if you think I am wrong before reading, my good intention and spare time will do no good.

What is will? Will is merely mental power and motivation. Freewill does not include any mean of physical ability. However without will, animal cant do thing and live the way we all do.

There are always possibilities that illegal acts commiters wont have to go to jails and pay for penalities. Beside, the punish in legal process dont change what is already done, not one can change what is already happened.
500 years ago we could not fly. Today we are flying with our inventions, we are flying. Also we are intelligent enough to understand laws of universe, so called science.
Freewill can think of illogical thing that cant possibly be happening. For example, thinking of a circle has one or more angle or an empty cup with water in it. Freewill can also think of things hardly be done and encourags one-self to try and achieve it.

You may not fully understand, and still think I am wrong. Its ok, this is yahoo answer.

Answer 4

You are clearly a 1st year philosophy student or someone who is trying to sound intellectual but doesn't understand the concept of Socratic argument. Your grammar and sentence structure could also use some work if you are trying to prove an opinion by analogous argument.

Your analogy is unsound. Water is governed by physical laws of gravity that has nothing to do with desire or choice. Water does not have free will because it is not sentient.

Your last paragraph makes no sense nor has it any valid point that I can deduce. I don't know where you got your "Free will states....." quote from. Do you understand the concept of Free Will at all? Also I suggest using a dictionary before you use words like 'misnomer' in the wrong context.

Free will is the term given to the belief that you are free to choose your 'destiny' or future without having it predetermined before you choose it.

It has nothing to do with physical laws of gravity, kinetics or biological nature. It has NOTHING to do with the psuedo-metaphysical discussion given in The Matrix where belief is all you need to bend spoons. Or in your cliche example of flying from pixie dust and happy thoughts.

I believe I have the freedom of choice to argue with you and shoot down your flimsy postulate without being coerced into it by a higher being. Unless you can prove my future is destined and already written then I have free will right now.

Rephrase your argument if you still hold your opinion. And whilst the lax grammatical nature of the internet has obviously allowed you to neglect the proper use of the English language, if you are trying to form an argument, then you need to be able to form proper sentence structure.

Answer 5

I actually don't want to don tights and a cape and fly. Think of all the bugs that would hit you. I prefer to get in a commercial jet or a piper arrow.

But as far as flying like superman goes, maybe you need to try the hang glider.

Answer 6

If I didn't have free will, I would be married, keeping my husband happy and going to a Christian Church. It was my decision to divorce my husband, and I don't attend a Christian Church. I am in control of my own destiny. I dislike flying, either in a plane or on my own, which is why I don't.

You really must read Nietzsche sometime.

Answer 7

you are free to do as you want but that does not mean that there is not a price to pay for making that choice..the only thing that prevents the water from running uphill is your perception of what you think it should do therefore you get what you expect from the limited mind that you hold so true and dear...the world will bend to your desires you just have to know it and stop trying to prove to your personality-image that it can[psychoanalyze]the spirit within you already knows this but nobody wants to give up the image of what they think they are to actually know what they are because there is nothing for the petty image to cling to...you have to free of mind to get desired results out of free-will

Answer 8

water isn't a good comparison. you can do whatever you want. just because one is to stupid or privative limits what they actually can do. and im sure way way into the future people will fly and do all sorts of bizarre stuff beyond the primitive mind of what a human is today. it wasnt long ago before we walked upright and walked.....

Answer 9

just because you have free will to do something, it doesn't mean that you can do it or that you are capable of doing it. I have free will to abort my baby but I could NEVER do that. I could buy a gun and shoot someone but I would NEVER do that....I want to do my boyfriend in the butt with a strap on, but can't do that either...and if I tried I truly believe that he would fly off like superman, does anyone know where I can get a strap on made of kryptonite?

Answer 10

Unassisted human flight is not a matter of will, free or otherwise. Free will exists, and it is limited to one, and only one, choice, made every day: Choose you this day whom you will serve. Or, if you like a more recent stating of the choice, "If any man would come after Me [Jesus], let him take up his cross daily and follow Me." You are free, every day, to choose to serve God, or not to serve God. Exercise your will wisely.