The truth about free will.
What would you feel if you found out that there is no such thing as "free will"? Will that confuse you? Will it solicit an aggressive and violent reaction within you or will it give you a refreshing feeling of finally arriving at a point that you never though existed before?
Why would it matter? It matters to everyone who seek the truth. To those who are content in living a life of lies -- not so much. To those who believe that there is more to life than being born, living a life of pain and dying..this is very important.
First let us take a look at the conventional meaning of free will:
In philosophy, free will is the ability of agents to make choices unconstrained by certain factors - Free will may also refer to: Freedom of choice ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will_(disambiguation) )
Free will according to that is OUR ABILITY TO CHOOSE WITHOUT CONSTRAINT. Does it really happen? Can we really make a choice without being "constrained by certain factors"?? Let us examine the facts.
Whenever you make a choice, is it free from any influence? Be honest with yourself and you will easily see that every bit of our decisions and choices are always INFLUENCED (constrained in a way) by something we value.
No matter how important or how insignificant a choice you make, it is always based on what you value.
Where do those values came from? All our values are acquired. We acquire values from our society, community, religious affiliation, family and friends, through learning and experience. Then at the moment of decision making, we are influenced by those values, whether to do something or not.
For example, a man who is born in a Roman Catholic family has a very good chance of becoming a Roman Catholic himself. Later on when he grow up and acquired more knowledge and experience, he may choose to change religion or not, yet again it will be because of his current values. Let us say that he chooses to remain with his family's religion, what values may have influenced such a choice? The list of values that he may have considered may include the following :
- Family relationships,
- familiarity with his current religion,
- he thinks that there is nothing wrong with his religion
- maybe he does not want the trouble of going thru the pain of changing the people he mingle with in his religious activities.
- He may enjoy his current religious activities. (etc.)
Now consider an incident when a newfound friend may offer this guy a meal with pork dish. Will he choose to eat the dish without qualms or not? Why? Will his choice be INFLUENCED by his values? Yes, of course. In fact we all are BOUND by our values, ALWAYS.
This simple example can be changed and adjusted to fit every case you may think of. At the end you will realize that we do make our choices based on what we believe, based on what we value. Choices are therefore NEVER FREE.
Does that mean that an evil man who inflicts so much damage to his fellow should not be held accountable for his actions because he is ALWAYS INFLUENCED BY SOMETHING ELSE? This is a common way of thinking among criminals: An example of which is Mr. Ernst Kaltenbrunner - A Nazi officer who is found guilty of heinous warcrimes andd was executed by hanging.( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Kaltenbrunner )
These are his last words translated into English:
"I have loved my German people
and my Fatherland with a warm heart.
I have done my duty by the laws of my people
and I am sorry that in this hardest of time
my people were led by men who were not soldiers
and that crimes were committed of which I had no knowledge.
Germany, good luck."
The point is well emphasized. An evil man who treated others in the cruelest of manner may feel innocent because he is just doing his job. (Doing what is valued, which in this case is doing the valued obedience of a soldier to his superiors).
Is Kaltenbrunner and the likes of him right? Are these people who are acting out their values not guilty of their crimes? As we have proven shortly too that no one is free from outside influence when making any decision...Is a man accountable for his choices and actions?
Consider these, depending on the teaching and the values that a person will accept, he or she may do:
- Abort an unborn baby.
- Kill people of different skin color.
- Look down on people with lesser money.
- Kill someone because of pity.
- Annihilate a nation.
- Change his sex organ.
- Rape young virgin girls.
- Divorce a wife.
As you read from that semi-random list above, how do you feel about each of them? Do you agree or disagree that it is okay? Depending on our own personal values, we may say its ok or it is bad. Remember though that all that is in the list have been actually done and currently being done by those who hold those values as; TRUE, ACCEPTABLE and/or NECESSARY. Those kind of values can can come from anywhere, not just religion.
To return to our question; Are these people not accountable for the actions they do because there's really no FREE WILL? Far from it. Everyone will be accountable for what we choose to do although our decisions maybe influenced by many factors.
Because at the end it is ourselves that chooses which values will affect our every decision and action.
This should remind us to be very careful on what we accept as TRUE. Because, while THERE IS NO FREE WILL, WE CAN ALWAYS CHOOSE. Why is this realization important? This realization will give a reason for a man to consider more, his actions and choices. Knowing well that he will be fully responsible for all consequence of his decisions.
We should always be careful on what we value. Because sooner or later those values will make us do things.
This brings us to the next important question, where SHOULD we get our values from? Who should really decide what is right or wrong? I hope that you can appreciate these kinds of topic, which are way more important and lasting than any other topic under the sun. Thank you for reading.
If you have any question relating to the topic, just post them below and I will try my best to reply. -east