Is free will an illusion?

Question: Is free will an illusion!?
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This is going to be a little long, but i will share all my knowledge on this subject!.

"Our decisions are predetermined unconsciously a long time before our consciousness kicks in," says John-Dylan Haynes, a neuroscientist at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience in Berlin, who led the study!. It definitely throws our concept of free will into doubt, he adds!.

This is by no means the first time scientists have cast doubt on conscious free will!. In the early 1980s, the late neuroscientist Benjamin Libet uncovered a spark of brain activity three tenths of a second before subjects opted to lift a finger!. The activity flickered in a region of the brain involved in planning body movement!.

But this region might perform only the final mental calculations to move, not the initial decision to lift a finger, Haynes says!."

The idea of determinism is that all events are the results of previous causes!. If we heated a bar of iron, and the bar expanded, we would say that the heat was the cause of expansion!.

The idea of a physically determined universe is associated with Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)!. This is sometimes called the billiard ball view of nature: A billiard ball will only move when acted on by another force such as another billiard ball hitting it!. If we could measure the exact velocity and angle of the first billiard ball, we could predict the movement of the second!.

The philosophical problem comes with human beings!. If we were to accept the empirical view that human beings are organized systems of matter and that our minds are formed as a result of experiences then we may want to explain human behavior in terms of cause and effect!.

If we knew enough about the biological make up of an individual, his early childhood experiences and the social and historical circumstances he was born into, then perhaps we could predict all of his actions!. From this point of view the idea of free will (the ability to choose) is simply the result of or ignorance of all of the causal factors!.

To say that we have free will is like saying an apple falling from an apple tree "chose" to fall!. All sort of factors come to mind, the direction of the wind the apple is facing, the thickness of the branch holding the apple, the angle of the branch holding the apple, the weight of the apple!.

Some people will bring in quantum mechanics and heisenburg's uncertainty principle, mainly because it states that determinism is impossible on an atomic level!.(i emphasize atomic level)

I personally do not think quantum mechanics would have any influence at all on the firings of neurons!. They are all structures on the "macro-reality"!.

Quantum mechanics only eliminate deterministic element of the universe, meaning, it will only challenge the concept of determinism, it will not favor the theological concept of free will!.

And even if someone proves that there are quantum elements in our brain, it still does not prove free will!. Randomness does not offer any conscious-choice!.

My conclusion is that free will cannot exist, only the sensation of freedom!. Free will violate physical laws; cause and effect!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Yes, if you pull back to a wider view of existence!. In that mind and physicality itself could be a construct of a spiritual reality!. It helps to think of the possibility of absolute free will coexisting with absolute destiny, why not!? Or action being the result of previous action and nothing else!.
But seeing free will as an illusion does not mean that having free will is a waste of time and you might as well give up!. It's an illusion in a good sense!. An illusion being a twist in your own ability to perceive reality!. Once you see this you can really begin to enjoy free will being nothing other than the play and display of a bigger creation!. You being embedded in the will of God if you like!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

That's actually a really deep question if you really think about it!. Do we really have free will!? Is there such thing as Fate!?

See I hate the idea of fate because it means your destination is set and whatever random things you think you do on the way are actually what get you to your inevitable destination!. Would it be possible to defy fate if it did exist!? Say you were driving along with a friend in your car, your going like 60 mph and see a tree!. You jokingly think about swerving off the road and hitting the tree but you know you will not and cannot do it!. Your friend and probably you will be killed!. But what would happen if you did!? Or could you even!?

I dont believe free will is an illusion!. We control our lives!.

But when you really start analyzing things like that it gives you allot to think about!.

Oh Im not saying that Fate and Free Will are the same Im saying that if fate existed it would mean that free will does not!. Think about it this way, at the end of the day you will get in a mild car crash!. That is your fate!. Now between now and then you may be able to do whatever you want to do which may even be simply what you were intended to do even though it seems by choice to you, but these events inevitably lead to the car crash!. Therefore you would really have no free will at all with the existance of Fate only the illusion of it from your perspective!.

Thats why fate or destiny is directly linked to free will!.

Sorta scary, you really couldnt know if fate did exist because of the way it would have to work if it did!.

But I don't believe in fate or destiny, we forge our own!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Hi Guru,

The question of free will is itself a loaded question, like asking, "Do you still beat your wife!?" How you ask the question often begs the answer; and this is the case with the perennial free will problem

The problem with free will is that it presupposes a lack of causality, and that is simply ridiculous!. For a choice to be free, it would also have to be random; and if it's random we actually have a name for that, it's called insanity!.

The problem with determinism is that it philosophically presupposes a normative intelligence in the beginning!. Consider, your parents had to have you, their parents had to have them, etc, etc, etc!.!.!. all the way to the Big Bang!. Shakespeare had to write his sonnets and Monet had to paint his water lillies!. For determinism to work, all of these things had to be alive (like an inevitable computer programme) from the beginning!. And this is frankly more than the rational mind can accept!.

I maintain that the compatibilists have the answer!. Is free will possible!. Yes, but only if there is thought!. People must actually think about what they are doing, and make choices based on evidence!. Under these circumstances the choice is free because one could choos to do otherwise, but the choice isn't random, it's caused by the evidence!. Thus, true freedom implies causality; but causality does not imply determinism!. Make sense!?

Cheers, mate!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

One of the main points of hinduism is "All came from illusion and end with illusion"!. Human beings were never been in their own control!. We can see with babies and kids how free will playing its part in their lives!. We have been taught how to gain Will Power to control our free will because free will is ever existing spirit in each human being!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Free will is a continuum!. Amoebas have none, all programmed response to stimulus!. Dogs have much more free will, humans have more than any life on this planet!.

Nothing on earth has 100% free will, that would mean deciding to take each breath, and deciding whether or not to love your baby when it's placed in your hands the 1st time!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I don't believe that hormones makes us do stuff, because we have a free will!. People can always conquer other influences if they look deep down in themselves and find their free will!. It's just that most people aren't strong enough to do that!. And that's their fault!.
A drunk person has chosen to drink and be mostly influenced by their drunk self, so to speak!. But it's still their choices, the ones that they do make!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Free will is indeed a myth!. Fate dictates your path!.

No one can truly do random things (such as drive into a tree), unless they have a mental condition (i!.e!. their brain is malfunctioning)!. Even then they do not have a choice of what random things to do!.

A drunk person is no different from a sober person as far as free will goes!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

yes i feel so!.!.!.to some people its more apparent than to others!.!.!.in my own life i know that i am going down a certain path and if i try to break out of it!.!.!.events push me back onto the path!.!.!.so i feel that i am guided to have certain experiences and not others!.!.!.!.weird!.!.!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Looks like it is!

Please don't delude yourself!.!.!.there's hardly anything as free-will against the will of God!

Ever heard of 'Man proposes, God disposes'!? I believe in that!.

Thanks for the TDs!.

God Bless you!Www@QuestionHome@Com

Well, that's subjective!. Free will may be an illusion to one person but not to the other!. Figure it out yourself to see if you can make choices!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

No!.
Free will is not an illusion!.
Expecting the response from the actions of the free will is!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Nope!. Every choice you make is your own!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

No!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

A person's "free will" has its LIMITS!. Though, our own previous decisions and actions really contribute to the next "circumstances" in our lives, still there are uncontrollable things that would occur to us!. We don't have control over death (except for suicide), nor do we have a choice to be born or not !. We don't have control over mental illnesses as well, schizophrenics couldn't control their dopamine and dopamine receptors--- because NATURE made it that way, it wasn't their choice to be that way!. Actually as soon as we're born, we're doomed to die!. We live in an interlocked system that is self existing = NATURE/ REALITY!. We live to die = that's destiny!. We have LIMITED freedom!. In the universe we live in, NATURE (atoms+energy) prevails- it doesn't have any limit, and it is self existent!. We are just a part of it!. I could say we are PREDESTINED by nature, no matter how we control it, we couldn't overcome it, because we just play a finite role in it, in the same vein that our FREEDOM is finite!. :)

I wouldn't say that free will is an illusion!. free will exists but it has its boundaries!. Our freedom is LIMITED, because nature governs us!.Www@QuestionHome@Com