honorentheos wrote: ↑Fri Feb 24, 2023 2:22 am
MG 2.0 wrote: ↑Thu Feb 23, 2023 1:05 am
Today is a snow day here in Utah. I made a free will choice to stay in and play around on this board. Did I have to? No. But it’s snowing and cold outside. I just finished a novel I was reading. Today I felt like writing and participating on this board rather than not (as I choose otherwise to do at other times because of good weather and a greater variety of things to do), and it was a conscious choice as far as I can tell.
In this way I suppose free will is deterministic based on factors in the environment and feelings/thoughts resulting therefrom. But it’s still free will as much as I can determine.
Let's chew on this for a bit. You describe making a conscious choice to write and participate on the board. What process was involved in choosing?
Looking at alternatives and then making a decision. Of course if I’d just stayed in bed that decision would have limited my options. Every time we make a choice there is a certain amount of free will that goes into it. Limited as it might be depending on the situation.
Decisions from exercising free will and/or the right to choose can and do cascade into positions of confinement or liberation that in turn impact options/choices and thus either limit or broaden the spectrum of free will.
First world folks that live in free societies generally have almost unlimited options and thus greater opportunity for manifesting their ability to make choices and exercise free will.
Restrictive societies have much less opportunity for individuals to make choices. Free will and options/choices are tied at the hip.
I don’t think we need to over complicate things.
I’ve heard some folks say that once they learned ‘the truth’ about Mormonism they really didn’t have any choice but to leave the church. Their free will was diminished. But that’s because they settled on a limited set of options/choices without looking at a broader spectrum of choices, in my opinion.
Energies, drive, moral rectitude, and other ‘in built’ attributes that vary from person to person based upon heredity/environment can also act as either catalysts or inhibitors as to the amount of free will an individual might be able to exercise.
I think that one can either choose to think that we have free will or not. As we do so we exercise our free will.
Personally I believe that the options/choices available to choose between religions of different stripes or no religion at all are finely tuned so that we are able to truly exercise our will to follow one path or another. And each path can make perfect sense!
God or no God?
Of course, indoctrination can impact that process of will if we’ve been conditioned not to ask questions, etc. But even at that there is still that ‘spark’ that can fire up and the will for change/choice can be the driving force.
Free will.
There you go! It’s not rocket science…is it?
Free speech and free will are also joined at the hip. Some here on this very board would have free speech and thus free will curtailed through intimidation, innuendos, and ad hominem. The will to persevere through all of that flak is a mighty thing! Free will. One could choose to shrivel up in response and keep one’s mouth shut. Free will.
OK…what shall I exercise my will to do now…
Next episode of…
Hope that helps. I don’t know that I have much more to say in response.
Have a nice weekend.
Regards,
MG