is "free will" an illusion?

Answer 1

If you THINK you have free will, I would say that that is a pretty good indicator that you actually do have it. What is free will, after all, but the ability to make choices and decisions on your own? Either you are making your own choices, or you aren't. It's a little hard to imagine how a person could only think they're making their own decision, when they're really not. It's sort of like saying that a person only thinks they're happy when they're not. Well if they _feel_ happy, then by definition they are. Same thing with free will.

Free will is the intersection between determinism and randomness. In a deterministic universe, we would all be essentially automatons, having no choice in our actions. Every event could have only one outcome. If we made every decision with the flip of a coin, that's not free will either, because even though an event could have multiple outcomes, we ourselves are not the ones making the decisions, leaving it to chance instead. Free will is when we have a say in determining the outcome of an event (say, our lives, or what to have for dinner), and we actually exercise that decision-making process.

Quantum mechanics has demonstrated pretty conclusively that true randomness does exist in nature, so we do not and can not be living in a deterministic universe. Thus as long as we ourselves are exercising our decision-making abilities, it can be said that we do indeed have free will.

Answer 2

Perhaps I can choose a logical trick and say that by choosing to answer this question I am proving that "free will" exists.

Perhaps a better question, a more fair question is: what is the nature of free will?

This question does not assume the existence or non-existence of free will, it simply asks how to describe it.

It is certainly true that free will does not mean that I am free to act as I wish. I cannot fly simply by act of will, or even more difficult (statistically at least), win the PowerBall jackpot.

However, I do know that I have made real decisions in my life, and the I have decided. My actions are not ruled by some changes in body chemistry.

Answer 3

To me, the problem of free will versus determinism is an illusion.

If we are our physical bodies, if our mental life is caused by our brains, then one would conclude that our actions are just as determined by the laws of cause and effect as the physical world. However, this does not mean that our actions are not free. Our reasons for doing what we do are still the reasons we do them, they are still the primary cause for our actions. If those reasons are carried out in our brain in a deterministic process, what does it matter? Even if my actions are part of a determined process, I am still free If what I am is an integral part of the determination.

Answer 4

If you believe in God, then free will is an illusion. If God is omnipotent, omnipresent , and omniscient then he already knew you would ask this question and he already knew how I would anwser it. Therefore, the believer in God cannot logically or reasonably believe that we have free will. However, it would be difficult to live everyday life and not believe that we do have free will. Free will is a paradox, not unlike a woman. You can't live with it and you can't live without it.

Answer 5

it form of feels love that's to me. If God is on top of problems with each little thing and lives situations and activities are the way they're by way of divine plan then he should additionally appreciate by ability of that divine plan that those situations he ordained will make human beings make specific judgements. So particularly it in simple terms sounds like we've unfastened will yet from God's point of view we don't. it particularly is amazingly how i glance at it besides. what's complicated for me to draw close is the concept which you're in easy terms a real Christian while you at the instant are not "luke heat" and you totally persist with Jesus' instructions. How do you already know while you're luke-heat or warm? How do you already know while you're following the instructions properly; are you able to be fairly confident that your interpretation of the Bible is the nicely suited one? What no count if it particularly is no longer, does that make you luke-heat?

Answer 6

Well, when you consider all of life and matter in the universe to be composed of wave-lengths, illusion, then yes free-will, and everything else, is an illusion.

We are all just a matter of wave-lengths.

Answer 7

"Free will" is reality, enslavement is the illusion. But, to recognize true free will requires total self responsiblity, which most Souls are not ready to accept.

Answer 8

Is an illusion an illusion? Is life an illusion? gimme my 2 pts plz ty oopsy that was of my own free will

Answer 9

Not entirely.

However, the feeling of having free will is important for our mental health. That there is so little affected by our choices is another story.

Answer 10

No. And I say that because I 'willed' that answer. There is an old Tibetean quote, that translates something like this..."Life is a prison, if you think you are free, there is no escape."