Free Will?
 

So now that the idiot is gone I can finally make this thread.

The question is do you believe free will really exists? Why or Why Not?

No name calling bullshit. Please?


I say no. The two things determine everything about you are completely out of your control. DNA and environment. I believe in nurture over nature but dna does have a very important role in developing. If anything dna is a set of potential of how smart or strong you can be when placed in the best conditions. Everything you do is based on everything that has happened to you. I think that every reaction is a complex is system that if could possibly be recreated would happen in the same everytime. Society already believes both are influencers but why can't they be determiners?

Well that's bullshit. Free will FTW! Not everything you do is based on past experiences, I can decide to drink tea right now or decide against it. How is that not free will? If you're speaking of unconscious responses, for example to perilous situations, then yes, we do *react* and would probably react the same in the same set of circumstances. But pure thought ultimately prevails and is completely free.

Well how would one go about making a decision?

How does a person make a decision through free will? I don't think that it's possible but you do so explain it.

You don't believe a person can make a totally random decision? Aren't most thoughts random? I think we are guided by some basic needs, and some of our reactions are certainly the result of conditioning, but everything else is completely up to us. If we can stop and think about every single of our actions, we can weigh out the choices and decide for or against it. The theory that ones pattern of thought is conditioned by previous experiences and things we have learned is stretched at best.

How would you explain people with mental illness like schizophrenia and bipolar during which the brain (the illness) overrides the rational thoughts and actions. I'm not saying that there's some force out there who has already decided if we are going to get some tea or not, that's bull in my mind. But I do believe there is a subconscious part of our brain that has more influence than we realize.

Nothing's completely random. Everything is triggered by something. So no I don't think that grabbing for the apple juice over water out of the refridgerator is completely chance. Surely you didn't break down your actions completely by yourself. If we were free from influence than we wouldn't spend so much time and money on becoming educated. Propaganda wouldn't be so effective and pyschology would be as much fact as astrology. We're far more easily influenced than most would like to believe.

I agree that we are influenced by things. But do you believe that we have the choice of choosing that apple juice, or is it predestined?

I couldn't be bothered to read the thread so, who the f*ck is Will and why does he need to be freed??

You're not talking about free will from a govermental/leadeship point of view, you're thinking mind games. To say that you're already going to drink juice(taking your example) has nothing to do with the mind, as such. It has to do with what the body craves i.e liquid and then whatever is at hand, i.e juice. We all have free choice, some people just don't use it. One of my isses is freedom of speech, which is fine aslong as you dont insult/offend a culteral group. Then thats not freedom of speech, its dictatorship, say what you like *within reason*