Everything we do is a result of who we are as a person and of all the things that have happened to us so far in our life. We don't really make choices. We are faced with a circumstance and we act in a way that would be entirely predictable to anyone that understood how our brain works.
You're probably right but we have the free will to do what we think is right or to not do it. I suppose you could argue that if we decided to go against what our smart brains tells us then we didn't really make that choice, our stubborn brain made the choice for us. But what if we decided to go against what we would normally chose and then go against that choice? Would it be natural for our tricky brain to make that choice? Are there any original thoughts or has some other brain already thought it?
The kind of person someone becomes can be attributed to the sum of all of their life experiences however, not entirely. A person can live a life surrounded by criminals and still choose to not be one themselves. There are too many examples to list. Some people aren't followers or succumb to peer pressure. Some people aren't as predictable as you might think.
But if you understood how their mind works their rejection of their surroundings would be entirely predictable.
I think you freely chose to make this a post. Or did some circumstance in your life force you to do this?
Anything is possible in the land of hypothetical ideas. I think it would be impossible to actually prove what you're saying, though.
Free will is real so long as one drops the ego. The only problem is by trying to drop the ego, the ego grows some more. At least 95% of actions are caused by the subconscious anyway - it's not like any of us think about breathing. Further, how many of us are controlled by what we eat (and smoke). We all carry around trillions of foreign bodies within our own gut, all of which have a direct communication pathway top our brain and can force us to act in certain ways - "hangry". So we do have free will, it's just some are more free than others depending on how strong their will is to not be controlled by other beings - seemingly sentient or otherwise. Now, time to grow the ego by listening to some more Alan Watts and pretending I can mediate n shit.
I'm really proud of myself for totally dropping my ego. A lesser person couldn't have done it as completely as I did.
I get the whole idea of free will being an illusion. We think we have free will when Infact were forced to come to work and earn just enough money so we don't starve but not enough to save anything of life changing value. We're told we must rise every day at 6am. Then we're told at 10 am we may go for breakfast. At 1pm we are told we may go for lunch. At 3pm we are told we are now allowed to go back to see our families after spending the last 9 hours doing exactly what we're told to because if we don't we starve to death. We think we have dinner at 6.30pm through choice but it's now become a necessity because of all the things we had to do all day in order to pay for the meal it's the only time we have left to eat it. Afterwards we must wash up, then baths the kids etc, then we get about 2 hours between kids bedtime and our bedtime where we can actually be free to evoke our own free will but we're stuck in the house cos the kids are sleeping so are once again being dictated to what we can and cannot do. Yeah, definately say I agree from that angle but the question of free will in its entirety I'd say no. We all have the power of free will, just that the only time you can use it is if your lucky enough to won the lottery or have grafted your way above the system. Sent from my SM-G850F using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Free will doesn't mean you can do whatever in life you please, it only means you are free to make choices. Compare a pregnant woman with her unborn child. One has free will and the other doesn't. If you have options to choose from, you have free will. Even if the options are all bad