Free Will

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I'm a compatibilist

Free Will is your ability to make decisions without help from other people or a "higher power". It's like in my Sims games where your sims can automatically do things to fulfill their needs without you having to direct them to do so all the time, like going to bed when they're tired. Turning the free will option off makes it easier to control them one at a time, but then you're more likely to have them miss work or piddle on the floor.

When we're really young most of our decisions are made for us but when we get older we're supposed to -and should- be able to make them on our own, even when it's a major life-changing decision that not everyone will agree with.

Free Will in religion is their idea of explaining why people don't always make the right decisions, like committing sins they know are wrong. But people act as if God is in control of everything we do so it makes no sense.

I chose to do the right thing, of my own free will. (Nobody made that choice for me). Simple.

IMHO the only reason why people talk about still is poor definition of terms.

Do we have free-agency (ie. the ability to act in our own self-interest)? Generally speaking yes - when we aren't overshadowed by bigger concerns or obstacles.

Is there such a thing as an acausal event? Could we even declare an acausal event if they existed to be a choice?
The answer is we don't know to the first, and something pretty close to certainty as a no on the second.

So the most likely answer - yes, you can do exactly what you want to do or what you think you should do for the rest of your life, most of the time no one will stop you and sometimes they will. You could also most likely take that life you just lived accordingly, replay it either in part or in entirety 10 times, 100 times, a trillion times, and there wouldn't be so much as a subatomic particle out of place. It would be like watching a 3D solid-projected DVD.

To come up with a different understanding than that we'd have to see evidence of time and vectors of activity doing things that violate that perceived 1:1 ratio between time and matter. Believers in the multiverse theory of QM would consider space to be constantly splitting along lines of probability but that would be fracturing or blossoming of lines of causality, just more complexity rather than a new animal.

It's also really dubious to even propose that free will exists if enough NDE's and enough consciousness research shows that we're really timeless energetic appendages of one God in a panentheistic structure where time only exists in our lower nature. Even if every NDE'er who comes back saying they saw 360, experienced all time at once, and fused with the white light of Kether were confirmed by new forms of science that figured out a way to parse the objective/subjective barrier - it still doesn't seem like it would have any bearing on how objects and activities existing within time behave.

I have free will, Gods biggest mistake right there, I kicked him in the balls and set his beard on fire and gave him a black eye for trying to control my life and for taking away friends of mines's lives away for his way in working in mysterious ways BS! Hes afraid of sending his wrath my way because my rage overcomes his wrath so he leaves me alone. My rage is 10000000000000000000000000000 times more potent than his wrath so he backs the hell off. God is scared s**tless of me and has learned not to mess with me anymore he knows if he sent me to hell my rage would overcome my fear of his wrath, I would get used to the flames and torment and I would kill Satan and break out of hell and be searching for him for revenge! But since he is not real nobody needs to worry about that. Now I am calm and happy, knowing he is make believe! If he is not then bring it on God I dare you! I know you wont because you are scared of me, and my wrath and you know sending me to hell wont stop me especially my rage it is stronger than that of your wrath and of Satans power, hell will not contain me I will break out and seek revenge and become the new god!.....But yeah he does not exist so no worries.

I'm sorry your friends lives were lost. I empathize with you and wish you peace. Losing friends to death is immensely painful. (((AspieOtaku)))

I think we have free will, we make ultra complicated judgement decisions all the time that can't just be reduced down to a predisposed response. It is a constant battle though against our more basic instincts. It's also why we can commit suicide and go against our primary goal in existence, to survive.