Free Will: can someone help me out?

Question: Free Will: can someone help me out!?

So a friend and I, a little bit stoned, got into the discussion of free will!. Does it exist!?

He said, rather vehemently, NO!. He backed that "no" with this:

Go back to any situation!. If you were to repeat that situation (not go back in time, but literally, if it were to happen again), everything would play itself out exactly as it did the first time!. So, therefore, we have no free will!.

Purely as a matter of interest, and although he is right about the situation being exactly the same the second time around, does that make sense in terms of free will!? I just don't agree that we can jump from situation reconstruction to "no free will" so readily, but I don't know why!. Can anyone explain his point of view a little bit more, or can someone tell me whether or not they agree!?

Thanks, a best answer WILL be awarded!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:

The problem with your thinking is that you are looking at one person alone!. You have free will in that if someone else was in the same situation in their own unique mindset they wouldn't make the same decision that you did there in lies your free will!. To make a decision different from others!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

According to me free will doesn't exist!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I believe we indeed do have a "free will"!.

If someone asks you to do something without any consequences if you do not do it, then out of your "free will" you can choose to either do the task/favor for them or not do the task/favor!.

"free will" is basically the option to do what you want, in other words it is another word/words for "choice"

When you break the law you made the choice to do it!. No matter the situation you always have the "free will" or "choice" to do as you please!. Even if the consequences are dire if you choose not to do so!.

I don't understand how your friend can possibly think there is no "free will" in life!. Because there is!. Every Human Being's entire life is made up of "free will" or "choice"!. You use your "free will" for everything!. As I am doing using my "free will" to answer this question!.

If none of that helps you look at it in this point of view!.

You build a robot!. The robot has no mind of it's own and does only what you command it to do!. The robot has no "free will"!.

Can a object with no life what so ever move itself!? No

Everything that is LIVING has a "free will"

I hope that answers your question!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I disagree with your friend and his example!. If a situation occurred and assuming it turned out badly, and that situation repeats itself, why would it play out exactly the same!? Personally, you should have learned from the past, and gained some wisdom!. So in most situations, you should be able to navigate the situation differently (being stoned notwithstanding)!. If for some reason, it does play out exactly the same, because of uncontrolled factors, well then, it just repeated itself despite your free will choices!.

And yes, its a huge jump from situation reconstruction to "no free will!."

Edit:
Oh, that's actually how I understood it on my first read!. Then yes, I agree with his example, I have thought this through many years ago!. But his situation reconstruction example proves nothing more than that if we were presented with the same choices, with the same knowledge, at the same time and place, with the same mindset, under the exact same situation, then it would repeat!. Nothing more!. I don't see how it can prove or disprove or otherwise have any relation to free will!. Free will is determined at that first moment when you use your logic and/or your feeling to determine a course of action!. So what if you would make the same choice if it repeats!.

Well, it's not much, but that's all I have!. I can't prove we have free will, but that example certainly doesn't disprove it!. It's still a huge jump!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Ok here is the deal you can't have a all powerful knowing god and have free will!. Free will can only happen two ways one God has no control over your actions or refused to get involved in your actions!. In the second case then God knows what hitler and the wonderful evil people in history were going to do to the good people who love him and did nothing to stop them!. So theirfore God is uncaring and not merciful!. Or he doesn't have the power to stop you which is truely free will!. Now Christains are going to say that God lets you make your own decisions!. Well if he knows what you are going to do and allows you to do it that is called predestination which is not free will because your life has been choicen for you, we just don't know it!. also stop getting high even though you had a good question come out of it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

arguments against determinism:
1!. quantum mechanics--double slit experiment!. uncertainty principle!. wave-particle duality!.
2!. first cause--is god free!? or if you believe in big bang, was it predetermined!? if you make an exception to the very first event as outside of chain of cause-effect since there are nothing before that to base subsequent events on, then are there other first causes happening right now!?
3!. very idea of free will-kinda strange to have a deterministic system to allow freedom to exist!. the very idea says something beyond determinism!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

We do have free will!. God created man a rational being, conferring on him the dignity of a person who can initiate and control his own actions!.God willed that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel!. However, man's freedom is limited and fallible!. In fact, man failed!. He freely sinned!. By refusing God's plan of love, he deceived himself and became a slave to sin!. This first alienation engendered a multitude of others!. From its outset, human history attests the wretchedness and oppression born of the human heart in consequence of the abuse of freedom!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Whew!.!. This one is gonna be tough to explain!.!. Now this is just my personal opinion!.!.
I believe we are given free will!.!. OF course if you rewind and replay the results are gonna be the same!.!. But if you do things differently than say what you WANTED to do!.!. The results are GOING to be changed/ different!.!.!.
You are given choices in life!.!. What you chose to do in every situation will have a different outcome!.!. Based on WHAT you chose to do!.!. Try experimenting!.!. with this thought!.!.
As a whole people do not always make the RIGHT choices!.!.
But they sometimes will actually LEARN from PAST mistakes as to what NOT to do again!.!. OR what TO DO instead!.!.!.
The whole point of free will, is to LEARN to make the RIGHT choices in your life!.!.!. When you KNOW you SHOULD NOT do something but temptations blind you!.!. Then you know the outcome isnt gonna be what you wanted in the end!.!.
When you make the RIGHT choices things go well!.!.
However!.!. MANY things in life are NOT under human control!.!.
No matter what your choice is it cannot be changed!.!.
Example!.!. If you knew someone who say had a child and everything was perfectly fine with that child!.!. Then somehow out of no fault of your own or anyone else!.!. That child ended up having something wrong with them and being on a 2 yr old level for the rest of their life!.!. Could you change that!?!?
No!.!. B/c you love that child with everything that you are no matter what!.!. SO you keep fighting trying to find out WHY!?!?!?!?!? NOTHING!.!.!. NO ANSWERS despite all your choices of doctors,medications, treatments
and efforts put into it!.!. Still no reason why this happened!.!.
I could only guess what it could have been!.!. But will never know for sure!.!.This is my personal story!.!.!.
So while yes you have free will!.!. you dont have the power to do anything but learn from those choices!.!.
What you CAN and what you CANNOT control!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I believe everything is predetermined!. Most 'logical' people view destiny, and determinism concept as something illogical or pathetic, but if you stick to the topic and actually do some research on it; you will eventually find that it is plausible!.

"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!.

Determinisms are actually backed up with a lot of evidence!. However, uncountable people do not believe because it just seems illogical to them!. Free will(choice) is merely an illusion that is part of determinism!. So, in the big picture everything is determined but small choices we make, make up our destiny(the big picture) so it really depends on your perspective!.

By the way, best answer will be awarded when 17% of your questions are in vote!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

The Wonderful Gift of Free Will

TO UNDERSTAND why God has permitted suffering and what he will do about it, we need to appreciate how he made us!. He did more than create us with just a body and a brain!. He also created us with special mental and emotional qualities!.

2 A key part of our mental and emotional makeup is free will!. Yes, God implanted in us the faculty of freedom of choice!. It was indeed a wonderful gift from him!.

How We Are Made

3 Let us consider how free will is involved in God’s permission of suffering!. To begin with, think about this: Do you appreciate having the freedom to choose what you will do and say, what you will eat and wear, what kind of work you will do, and where and how you will live!? Or would you want someone to dictate your every word and action every moment of your life!?

4 No normal person wants his life taken out of his control so completely!. Why not!? Because of the way God made us!. The Bible tells us that God created man in his ‘image and likeness,’ and one of the faculties God himself has is freedom of choice!. (Genesis 1:26; Deuteronomy 7:6) When he created humans, he gave them that same wonderful faculty—the gift of free will!. That is one reason why we find it frustrating to be enslaved by oppressive rulers!.

5 So the desire for freedom is no accident, for God is a God of freedom!. The Bible says: “Where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom!.” (2 Corinthians 3:17) Hence, God gave us free will as part of our very makeup!. Since he knew the way our minds and emotions would work, he knew that we would be happiest with free will!.

6 To go with the gift of free will, God gave us the ability to think, weigh matters, make decisions, and know right from wrong!. (Hebrews 5:14) Thus, free will was to be based on intelligent choice!. We were not made like mindless robots having no will of their own!. Nor were we created to act out of instinct as were the animals!. Instead, our marvelous brain was designed to work in harmony with our freedom of choice!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

i believe in free will, but i don't believe in the free will most people talk about!. i think that we as humans can do whatever we want, but i think what is going to happen is set, to an extent anyway!.
say a man has the choice of jumping off a building, or walking down the stairs and going home!. the man obviously has a choice!. but say in the dimension he's in, it has already been decided he's gonna die here!. suppose he jumps!. splat that's it!. suppose he goes home, but gets shot on his way!. bam!. that's it!. it has already been decided!. suppose in another dimension he is going to live!. he jumps and lands on a matress, or goes home safely!. it's just always decided beforehand!.
tests have been conducted using brain scanning machines!. they figured out how to read someone's mind with this machine!. they had a choice between two decisions!. the scan showed that the brain had decided what to do before the person consciously knew he was going to do it!. the brain knew several seconds before he conciously chose!. that means maybe we don't have any free will!. our brains are our bosses, and we are either cursed or blessed to have to do whatever it decides!. but how do our brains choose!? are they programmed by a kind of all-knowing power like a god!? is it simply a survival trait!? these things are the reasons we have religions and wars over religion!. thnx for reading this whole thing if you didn't get bored in the middle and stopped!.Www@QuestionHome@Com