Can you posit a convincing argument, that there is such a thing as "Free Will"?

Question

Folks with control issuses, really should not try to answer this, as their answers will always be biased towards trying to control a person or situation.

Answer 1

It's delusional to think that whether you decide to take a walk this afternoon or not was determined a millisecond after the big bang.....makes no scientific sense, let alone common sense.

Under the doctrine of absolute pre-determination, society cannot hold us responsible if we decide to get drunk and our actions result in an automobile accident. Such incidents would have been part of a chain of causality that originated with the beginning of the universe. If we have no Free Will, there can be no responsibility and no punishments. Society could not exist.

The speculation that we have no free will defies common sense and our everyday experience of life. With the intervention of free will, our future, and thus the future of the universe, will follow a path different from the path it would have pursued without our intervention.

In addition to scientific considerations, common sense insists that Free Will exists. Who would deny that we have Free Will when we put one foot in front of the other and decide, of our own volition, of our own Free Will, to go for a walk or not go for a walk? It is clearly irrational to believe that a chain of causality (pre-determination) at the time of the Big Bang determines if we go for a walk this afternoon, or not.

Answer 2

Religiously: God doesn't control our actions. One example the fact that he sent Jesus to teach us what we should do and to absolve us from our sins. If we had no free will, god wouls simply make us believe and follow him.

Psychologically: It's true that our surroundings shape who we are, but our conscience lets us decide from whatever options are available at any given time. Without free will, the id in the subconsciuos brain would take over whenever a hot girl passed by a man and he'd hump her. If someone can't make good decisions or feels like there aren't have enough options, then it's probably ignorance. Of course, we can only shape ideas from what we've learned, but this doesn't mean that we have to be superior beings to possess free will.

Answer 3

there is a continuum. Amoebas are pure instinct. As animals brains get more complex they are less governed by instinct and more by learning. Humans appear to be at the top of the learning curve on earth.

Pure free will would be deciding EVERYTHING. Deciding to breathe, deciding to love your baby as you hold her for the 1st time, etc...

So obviously we have more free will than some animals, but still ahve some instinct.

Answer 4

Free will isn't impossible. We are compelled to do things because of the nature of our existence and the environment we live in.
But there are instances in which we are free to decide over the course of our actions. Take the simple example of a person who decides to go jogging one morning. Perhaps events or people in the past affected his perception of health, and compelled him to take up sport, but his decision to get up that morning and go jogging was his. How many of us after all chose NOT to go for that jog?

Answer 5

No. I've never heard/read convincing evidence that supports proof of "Free-Will". Its always a circular argument that leads to a paradox. Choices are hardly ever totally one way or another, but are instead multidimensional. Free will is the ego believing it is in control of its destiny, when freedom of spirit is actually what we are seeking. This does not mean we are not responsible for our thoughts and actions as it is this responsibility that humbles our self-will providing the space necessary for Universal Will to begin to manifest within us.

Answer 6

I choose to answer this question with a silly joke that has nothing to do with the question. I decided to so by my own free will. Here is the joke I have decided to tell:

A cab driver was stuck in a traffic jam in New York City. He noticed some guy walking up to each car with his hat in hand. He rolled his window down and asked what was going on.

The guy walking responded, "Terrorists are holding Rosie O'Donnell and Al Sharpton hostage. The say if we don't give them 10 million dollars that they are going to drench them with gasoline and burn them alive!"

The cab driver asked "How much is everybody giving?"

The guy responded "About a gallon."

Answer 7

Good question!

Will as a whole is free, there is no other will beside it that could limit it. But each part of the universal WILL - each species, each organism, each organ - is irrevocably determined by the whole.

Thanks for asking. Have a great day!

Answer 8

Defining "free" is key to comprehending and framing your question. "Will" is "intention."

"Free" imports ability to exercise intention without manipulation or other issues which affect functionality.

Hence, no one living on Terra is "free" of the "law of gravity," save they levitate. (E.g., Ann Ree Colton, author of "Men in White Apparel" and "Watch Your Dreams," spontaneously levitated several rows into an audience she was publically addressing.)

Thus, there is no "free"ness, if one's intention is to overcome e.g. causality, laws of physics, etc., with certain metaphysical exceptions based on higher powers.

By "free will" is thus meant "free intention." We understand that Matter is eo ipso causal, ordered, hence no free intention in Matter. If God Is. we understand that e.g. Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and so on all affirm that no "free intention" similarly exists, in the Moral or Soul or One Mind Soul of Deity. God Itself is understood to be Law-Minded, Being "Justice, Truth, Life," and so on.

Thus, the question behind any "free intention" question is "What is the Good?" The Good apparently is conformity to laws of physics, to the aristotelian ends that we do not violate laws of physics to our regret, and that we learn the laws of physics so as to produce more abundance, etc.

Similar Goodness applies to Laws of God, e.g. Justice, Truth, Purity, Mercy, and the like, promoting what is termed the abundant Life.

As such, the Good is "Happiness," "Felicity," well-being, God-Harmony.

Would suggest, along these lines, "Climb the Highest Mountain," Mark Prophet, "Men in White Apparel," Ann Ree Colton, "Man, Master of His Destiny" and "A Philosophy of Universality," O. M. Aivanhov, "The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?", Free and Wilcock, "Life before Life," Jim Tucker, M.D., and "Expecting Adam," Martha Beck, Ph.D.

cordially,

j.

Answer 9

Yes. Becuase I believe so and in today's society where everyone has an opinion and no one can judge the merit of this opinion, I must be correct.

Answer 10

When you face a situation that needs attention, and there are two or more ways of attending it, you have the choice of attending it any of the ways available, or of not attending it and suffering the consequences.