“

The sin of men and of angels, was rendered possible by the fact that God gave us free will.

~ C.S. Lewis

Do You Have Free Will?

Free will can be defined as the ability to make conscious choices that determine one's future. Free will, for example, allows you the possibility of controlling the physical, mental, and the spiritual realms, as well. Free will presupposes agency - the ability to alter one's environment according to one's conscious goals. Free will allows us the autonomy to make decisions independent of the outside world.

But what about ‘destiny?’

What of ‘fate?’

How does the concept of free will align with your religious beliefs, if at all?

As you can imagine, a belief that somehow our life’s pathway is ‘written in the stars’ or is part of some greater, divine purpose, contradicts the idea that humans have free will - and despite how ingrained consulting the daily horoscopes may be to some - there are some serious implications to this question.  Are we we are autonomous beings or not?

For example, some philosophers argue that we have no free will at all. According to the doctrine of Determinism all events, including human actions, are ultimately determined by causes external to the will. These philosophers argue that human beings have no free will and cannot be held morally responsible for their actions.

For example, according to causal determinism, every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature - basically the principle of ‘cause-and-effect,’ where everything has a sufficient reason for being as it is.

Of course, this brings up the notion of fate.

Fatalism is the thesis that all events are destined to occur no matter what we do, whether this the ‘will of the gods’ or some teleological(definition:The study of evidences of design in nature.) aspect of the universe outside the laws of natural cause-and-effect. So while it is not a form of determinism per se(definition:In casual English. Is typically used with a negative to indicate that a term being used is understood to be imprecise or off-the-mark.), you can gather how some could make a tenuous connection from fatalism to determinism.

For example, let’s take a very contemporary situation. If only actions that are freely executed deserve blame, then can our society justify putting prisoners in jail if they are not responsible for their actions? What if there is an external cause coercing their action? What if their crime was ‘part of ‘God’s plan?’ What if this was their fate?

“

The great paradox of determinism and free will, which has held the attention of the wisest of philosophers and psychologists for generations, can be phrased in more biological terms as follows: If our genes are inherited, and our environment is a train of physical events set in motion before we were born, how can there be a truly independent agent within the brain? The agent itself is created by the interaction of the genes and the environment.

It would appear that our freedom is only a self delusion.

~ E.O. Wilson

Many of us feel certain that we are in control of our lives. The irony, however, is that we still speak of things like fate, destiny, and luck.

This makes the questions and beliefs regarding free will quite complicated.

For example:

• If we have free will, then our decisions and their consequences rest squarely on us. No one, or no thing, can share in the blame or praise.
• If free will does not exist, then we cannot be punished for committing actions that we had ‘no choice’ but to take.
• Why would a God create animals that manifest homosexual behaviour if this God thinks that homosexuality is a sin?
• If we are afraid of consequences, then can we really say that we are ‘free’ to make a decision? Are we acting in certain ways only to avoid punishment? If so, that is coercion and we should not be praised for being ‘good’ since we were never given the freedom to be ‘bad.’
• If we have no free will - if we are influenced by a ‘spirit realm’ without our knowledge or consent - then how does that affect everything from our concept of self to the meaning of life?
• If we are a product of memories and experiences, what is the "will" in free will?
• Is evolution evidence against free will?
• What if our actions are nothing more than biological or genetic determinism(definition:Biological determinism or genetic determinism is the belief that human behavior is controlled by an individual's genes or some component of their physiology, generally at the expense of the role of the environment, whether in embryonic development or in learning.)? What if our notions of moral responsibility are hardwired into our genes?
• When questioned by a reporter, evolutionary biologist(definition:Evolutionary biology is concerned with the origin of life and the diversification, adaptation, and interconnection of life forms over time.) Richard Dawkins stated that, if we believe in a deterministic universe, it seems absurd to think that we have free will and can thus condemn or praise actions that we assume are not acts of free will. Dawkins’ therefore asks, isn’t it better to assume that we have free will, considering the sobering conclusion if we do not?

Are Human Actions Free?

There seems to be no doubt that everyday life often makes us feel like we have free will.

We make a number of choices every single day - some quite simple, such as what cereal you are going to have for breakfast each morning - to the type of complex and life-altering decisions that make your palms sweat and keep you awake all night, wracked with anxiety.

And certainly there are times when you’ve felt like you had no choice - circumstances, personal loyalties, and obligations may have led you into making a specific decision that was not favourable. However, even though it might have felt as though you had no choice, this isn't really true is it? After all, you could have chosen to do nothing or to resist. The outcome might not have been what you wanted it to be, and others may have been disappointed or peeved, but you still technically had a choice.

But what if you really didn’t? What if all the choices you thought you were making were already predetermined?

This is an important question because if we don’t truly have free will, then who, or what is making the decisions for us?

The Search for a Supreme Being

What if everything we do is controlled, perhaps even predetermined by a Supreme or Divine Being?

Such a question is not unexpected. One could argue that it is just too convenient and improbable that our planet just happens to exist in the exact place it needs to be in the whole of the universe to produce and support human life. It may also be too convenient that this planet does not only support life, but that humans - those incredibly sophisticated beings that are too complex to have just been a sheer fluke of natural biology - should propagate this Earth and survive and thrive. It just seems like there was some sort of intelligence behind the design.

Surely something must have created all of this - a Supreme Being, perhaps?

But if a God does exist, then what is its/her/his role in our lives? Is this God an active agent, a buttressing bystander, or an omniscient observer?

From the earliest beginnings, the argument for the existence or non-existence of a Supreme Being has been a fundamental question of Philosophy. Does a Divine Being, a God, exist? If so, then in what form and context does this existence take shape? Other than through the words of the convinced and converted, how would one logically prove its existence or non-existence?

ExistenceofaSupremeBeing

Long Description

If a Supreme Being Exists, What of Free Will?

What does it mean for our concept of free will if all our thoughts, actions, and behaviours are determined by a Supreme Being? Well to begin, the lack of true free will brings into question two very important philosophical issues: freedom of action and moral responsibility.

What we are left with is a bit of a conundrum:

• If there is a Supreme Being who is omnipotent(definition:Having unlimited power and the ability to do anything.) and omniscient(definition:Having ultimate knowledge of everything.), then how can humans be free and autonomous?
• If we assume that a Supreme Being is omniscient, then it knows our every future, seemingly freely made future decision. This implies that when we make a 'free' decision we are simply fulfilling a predetermined action already mapped out for us by the Divine.
• The more powerful and all-knowing the Supreme Being, the less room there is for the argument that humans are self-governing and morally accountable beings.

“

You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing, no one to blame.

~ Erica Jong

Compatibilism

In discussing whether we have free will, or if our actions are ruled by determinism, we neglected to pursue a third option: compatibilism.

Compatibilism attempts to blend free will and determinism - it is the belief that free will and determinism are compatible ideas, and that it is possible to believe in both without being logically inconsistent.

Compatibilism takes into account that, as humans, we can respond with flexibility and imagination when faced with difficulties or obstacles. As long as we are free from external coercion, we have freedom of action, yet, there must be a deterministic or causal connection between our will and our actions. This allows us to take responsibility for our actions, including credit for the good and blame for the bad. 

In short, in a compatibilist worldview, you get a small amount of options in an essentially determined universe. For example, what if we accept that there is a Supreme Being who gives us free will, and despite knowing what we will become, still allows us to figure out our own way of getting through life? So greed, corruption, even war - actions that would lead to misery - are ‘allowed’ by a Supreme Being that trusts that left to our own devices, we will choose the more just path?