Do Human beings have free will?

[Fluffy Pinkie 417]

I've decided to ask a question with which many have opposing views on the question of weather or not Human beings have any sense of free will or that humans don't have any free will. Personally not to push religion onto the matter but I'm christian and believe in the form of "God" or a higher being, which does not mean i don't believe in anything scientific as i do and usually have some christian's question my faith. I believe in free will but i don't believe that everything Humans do is due to free will. I understand that humans have basic survival instincts which impact some decision's we make, as well a a few other things but for the most part i believe the choices us humans make is due to free will.

 

While i don't want to gain a career in the science division, I'm still always ready and eager to gain more knowledge of well everything. I just want to see what everyone's opinion is on this subject is. Feel free to also give out some scientists theories.

[Betez 1,734]

Well, I believe in God, but I certainly don't believe that our destinies are controlled by one, and we have no way to change them. I think that humans do have free will.

[Appetite4Democracy 452]

I think that some things are destined to happen, but we choose how and when they happen. Not everything is destined to happen, and we have free will to make these things happen in different ways. For example: death. We're going to die, but if we live healthy lifestyles, it'll take longer. If I started drinking, smoking, and doing drugs, then I'd die much quicker.

[jw5587 182]

Yes, we do. While somethings are out of our control I don't think that's destiny. It's a random occurrence  To the poster above me, death isn't really a destiny, it's a biological fact. We can't change it we will die. There is a difference between fact and destiny. As for religion, I honestly don't know. I'm a teenager and at that point in my life where I kind of have to decide for myself but I don't know. Part of me wants to believe but then my logical side tells me I can't, it doesn't make sense.

[MrJK 399]

I think we have 100% free will in all things. But, you mentioned survival instincts, sometimes it can be influenced. But i believe with any amount of will you can override any 'influence' that could be imposed upon you by whatever other force.

 

But there are also a lot of other things to account for. While everyone has choice (In my opinion) to do whatever they want in whichever way, everyone has that. That's a lot of conflicting ideals. It's bound to seem that some 'choices' were taken away, but i think it's just everyone having choices and those choices conflicting.

[khaine21x3 789]

A small minority of humans have free will but the overwhelming majority not having it seems like the most logical answer.

[Scootalove 10,689]

Humans have the free will to choose what religion that want to worship and, people have a choice to do whatever the hell they want. While the other half, humans have to abide by rules by the government and law officials. Somewhat 50/50, I know everybody is entitled to having the right to go to school or get a job but, in some countries kids aren't entitled to get an education only to work.

[Retro*Derpy 3,181]

Of course humans have free will. You can go out and do whatever you want, with of course, consequences. But you have all the capability to go out and do it.

[Limey 524]

It depends on how you define free will. For example, no matter how much I will myself to stay awake I will eventually fall asleep. But thats a biological thing so...

Ah screw it, I believe humans do have free will.

[cuteycindyhoney 13,306]

Rush comes to mind right now. "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." I can not accept that mankind is ruled by the choices made by some celestial voice. Take that to mean a mythical God, if you will. I will not apologize for my thoughts on that so called supreme being.

 

I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose FREEWILL!

 

 

Edited March 4, 2013 by cuteycindyhoney

[Celtore 2,770]

I don't think our futures are predetermined, I hold the opinion that they are the outcome of a long series of personal decisions and random occurances. Anyway, the burden of proof lies on the other side and I'll continue working hard to shape a better future.

[Pinkie Pie 3 U 42]

 

 

Oh, dude you should have have taken Philosophy 102 -Knowledge, Religion, and Power class with me in college. Things can get a freaky, when you start breaking it down. I'm sure I still have my notes from the class since it was so interesting. Now I don't know how much you know, but there are basically three different philosopher takes on the subject.

 

The three are determinism, free will, and compatibilism. Hard Determinism says we have no free will and are dictated directly by nature. Free will of course is we have all the choice. Now where it gets really funky is compatibilism or the belief that determinism and free will can coexist. Basically, for compatibilism we have on and off free will in which it depends on the situation as you said we have natural survival instincts. So my answer would be somewhat since for me it seems we have sometimes a free will (choice), and other times we have to act on our instinct (nature). It makes sense for me that way.

 

Our professor said though there are no right answers (obviously), everyone has their opinions. What counts is sticking with what you believe in and that you can sleep at night. lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2013 by Pinkie Pie 3 U

[Cupcake Ice Cream 436]

Rush come to mind right now. "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." I can not accept that mankind is ruled by the choices made by some celestial voice. Take that to mean a mythical God, if you will. I will not apologize for my thoughts on that so called supreme being.

 

I will choose a path that's clear. I will choose FREEWILL!

well you get an A for a good opinion and an A+ for music choice

 

see here is part of what I disliked about the idea of the christian god (or others for that matter...though not all)

 

So supposedly god puts us all down here on Earth and say we have free will...however you must abide by his rules to enter into the everlasting. Ok I can handle that. It's really like law is here on Earth or in America. We HAVE the free will to murder our neighbor...but things will happen if we do (ie, jail time or the death sentence)

 

Ok so moving past that let's dig a little deeper

 

No god, as is stated many times over is all-seeing and all-knowing. He KNOWS the choices of men and knows what they will be. That to me does not equate to free will. It equates to an all-powerful father figure watching a rerun.

 

See the thing is I don't mind god or gaia or whatever you choose to believe in (if at all) setting ground rules. It's like saying, you can do what you want, but you won't gain access to my kingdom if you don't act right. Ok that's fair...but when this same figure is all knowing and knows your destiny, then how is it free will? Unless of course he doesn't know your destiny...in which case a whole other off topic dilemma begins

[Yourmomsponies 444]

Yes and no.

We have true free will for a short while.

After that people get locked into careers marriages and other such things that limit our own free will.

Things like societal norms, etc, etc.

[Acoustic Cloud 2,202]

Being from my religious standpoints, yes, we do have free will.  Explanation is long and lengthy, but basically I'll sum it up.

We praise God, if we were having no choice in that, how would it glorify him?

 

Anyways, my belief, now if you excuse me... I'm choosing that i want some food.

*Walks away*

[Gone Airbourne 21,977]

Yeah I do believe that humans have a free will. I mean I choose what I do on a daily basis is that not free will? I guess others may have a different view to what free will means to them I guess.

[sparklechic 54]

I believe humans do have free will we have the choice to do whatever we want but there are consequences.  To describe this i will quote my favorite book- A  Fault In Our Stars "you dont get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you"  

 

so we dont have free will to choose what happens to us but we can choose how to react. I am a christian as well and believe that we make our choices. God just wants us to make the right ones and sometimes we dont but he forgives us.

 

Overall summary: yeah we do have free will

[Circadian 1,273]

Nope. We're a product of our circumstances. Every single move you make can be predicted if you have a powerful enough simulator.

[Radiance64 7,053]

I'm a firm believer in destinies, but I also believe we can chose our destinies. So yes, I do believe humans have free will, to drive themselves toward whatever fate they desire.

[Harmonic Revelations 8,835]

No, free will is merely an illusion. Science shows that we make decisions before we even know it consciously, so with the right equipment, you can tell what decision someone is going to make even before they themselves know what decision they are going to make.

[Zygen 6,066]

Humans have free will, thats actually something thats mentioned as being given to us I think before in the Bible somewhere if your A Christian. Regardless its plain to see that if we didn't have free will everyone would follow the same thing there wouldn't be diversity at all we'd all follow whatever controlled our will's and actions, and since we don't do that thats my proof that we have free will.

 

Everyones free to do what they want in a sense, while it may not be accepted by laws or something and can even put you into massive trouble the fact you can do the initial action means we have free will. Even if the action will not always be tolerated by everyone.

 

If we where all without free will we'd all be robots, and while I think all of us have talents and abilities that tie into us being destinies to do things, I still think its our choice as to how when where and if we follow them.

[Dev 251]

Destiny has nothing to do with it.

 

Ultimately, while we can make decisions on our own, they all come down to how the brain works and the "butterfly effect", so really, we don't have free will. But what each person does is different and is all based on what they have done before, what happens to them, what happens around them, and how their brain works. It's too complicated to predict at this point in time, but the reality is we are very predictable. Still, at a conscious level, we have free will, so I guess we can do what we want, lol.

[Fluffy Pinkie 417]

For anybody that says we have no free will at all, if you wouldn't mind could you see if you could find an online source i'm curious to read about why some claim there's no such thing as free will, please don't take this as an insult i'm just trying to raise my intelligence.  Now as for everybody that commented on her no matter your opinion what about if you think about as time goes on many theory's that are stated now could in the future be contradicted which has happened numerous times in the past.

Edited March 2, 2013 by Rainbowswag4

[TwilizzleFoShizzle 95]

Humans don't have free will because everything we do is based off of a complex decision making process that allows our brain to make decisions based on past events and instincts. for example, we don't have the free will to determine if we will have cheese or pepperoni pizza, our brain makes the decision based on past times that we have eaten cheese or pepperoni pizza, and based on events happening around us such as somebody recommending you to eat 1 or the other.

[Fluffy Pinkie 417]

Humans don't have free will because everything we do is based off of a complex decision making process that allows our brain to make decisions based on past events and instincts. for example, we don't have the free will to determine if we will have cheese or pepperoni pizza, our brain makes the decision based on past times that we have eaten cheese or pepperoni pizza, and based on events happening around us such as somebody recommending you to eat 1 or the other.

But what about if you chose to eat something because somebody did not recommend it or you chose to try something for yourself for the first time despite others saying not to? My personality usually wants me to try different things and while sometimes i do take my friends advice their are other times i ignore it and try something for myself.