Do we really have free will?

[Trailblazer]

i will ramble a bit:

what if we have perfect free will?

what if all choices are ours alone?

but if God is an infinite being, not constrained by time and space, wouldn’t God foresee all that will happen?

foreseeing and knowing is not the same as guiding our actions.

I agree with all of the above, which is my belief according to my religion.

what if God has absolutely no power to alter anything that we choose to do, but maybe subtly nudges us in a good direction? Yet we still can disregard the nudge.

I believe that God has the power to alter anything we might choose to do, but God generally does not alter anything we choose, although God might nudge us in a good direction.

my grandfather always said one sentence whenever I would be ready to go home:
“always do what’s right”.
It was a gentle nudge, but I could chose to ignore it.

I believe we can choose to ignore the nudge.

 

[Spirit of Light]

Do you think we have free will to make choices or do you think that fate/God is controlling everything we do? In other words, can we make our own choices or is everything we will ever do already been decided upon by God and we are just acting out what has been written on the Tablet of Fate? Are we all just actors in a movie that God has scripted?

I ask this because I do not think I have the free will to change much of anything in my life yet I feel like I need to change many things. But I cannot seem to change them. I am very strong willed person so whenever I set out to do something it gets done, but I cannot seem to make up my mind to do certain things and do them, so I feel stuck in a lifestyle I do not like.

Maybe I am stuck because it is not meant to be that I change anything right now, because I am doing what God has willed/scripted for me, or maybe I should be doing these things. One thing I know is that I cannot make myself do things to change my situation even though I am somewhat unhappy with the way certain things are.

This has nothing to do with money because I have plenty of money, much more than I could ever spend in my lifetime, even if I never worked one more day of my life. Time is an issue since there is only so much time, but why can’t I decide to take the time to do things that I feel I need to do? I am not a lazy person, anything but, so that is not the reason. I am also physically fit and mentally capable, so that’s not it either.

I do not believe we have full free will. But we are given options of what we can do. If we do it morally correct we gain virtue, but if we act upon our ego and wants we will suffer in some way later.

 

[Jeremiah Ames]

I agree with all of the above, which is my belief according to my religion.

I believe that God has the power to alter anything we might choose to do, but God generally does not alter anything we choose, although God might nudge us in a good direction.

I believe we can choose to ignore the nudge.

your difference from my post about God having power to alter anything we might choose is quite interesting to me

because it is one concept my wife and I would debate extensively in the past

to be honest, I can’t say that I firmly believe one way or the other
A better answer for me is that I honestly and absolutely do not know.
Your idea holds just as much weight for me as mine

 

[Trailblazer]

your difference from my post about God having power to alter anything we might choose is quite interesting to me

I base that belief upon God being all-powerful so I believe God has the power to do anything that is within His nature to do as God. Logically speaking, if God can nudge us in a good direction then God can control any of our actions if He wanted to.

 

[rational experiences]

Do you think we have free will to make choices or do you think that fate/God is controlling everything we do? In other words, can we make our own choices or is everything we will ever do already been decided upon by God and we are just acting out what has been written on the Tablet of Fate? Are we all just actors in a movie that God has scripted?

I ask this because I do not think I have the free will to change much of anything in my life yet I feel like I need to change many things. But I cannot seem to change them. I am very strong willed person so whenever I set out to do something it gets done, but I cannot seem to make up my mind to do certain things and do them, so I feel stuck in a lifestyle I do not like.

Maybe I am stuck because it is not meant to be that I change anything right now, because I am doing what God has willed/scripted for me, or maybe I should be doing these things. One thing I know is that I cannot make myself do things to change my situation even though I am somewhat unhappy with the way certain things are.

This has nothing to do with money because I have plenty of money, much more than I could ever spend in my lifetime, even if I never worked one more day of my life. Time is an issue since there is only so much time, but why can’t I decide to take the time to do things that I feel I need to do? I am not a lazy person, anything but, so that is not the reason. I am also physically fit and mentally capable, so that’s not it either.

O spiral motion GoD spirit movement on face of great deep.

Science theories science in a heavens whose strings go back into hot dense mass hell volcanic earth.

Proven wrong.

We all died. The memories of our human death encoded in what we preached as the hall of records.

So we said as gods creation continued our human life became an encoded angel imaged recording.

We own memories that told us our satanic occult nuclear pyramid builder brother had sent life to hell.

Why it was preached by revelation of newly returned healed human life attacked in heavenly occult conditions.

Depending on when you personally died a long time ago depends on what form of mind memory you inherited in new life.

Will of God in heavens cloud circuit our death formed O memory of all life on earth historic loss.

Informed and warned by God memory the will of it natural.

Why we said we always had been angelic message advised by humans for humans.

 

[Clara Tea]

Do you think we have free will to make choices or do you think that fate/God is controlling

Psychics see alternative futures. So, if you listen to the advise of a psychic you could, under certain circumstances, change the future.

Some future events cannot be changed by human action. For example, an earthquake will occur when it is supposed to unless humans go to great measures to prevent them. However, some things could change it (fracking the fault, or melting of the poles which causes more quakes and volcanoes due to crustal pressures).

Some future events are dependent on human action and can, under ordinary circumstances, be changed. Unfortunately, W. Bush's decision to attack Iraq was set in stone, immutable, because of the stubbornness and stupidity of President W. Bush. So psychics saw no alternatives, they just saw global pandemics, recession, lack of trade, hoards of homeless people, etc.

Before they were born, God hated Esau and loved Jacob. This is either because God knew if their souls were good, or perhaps God know the future.

 

[Clara Tea]

I base that belief upon God being all-powerful so I believe God has the power to do anything that is within His nature to do as God. Logically speaking, if God can nudge us in a good direction then God can control any of our actions if He wanted to.

You are absolutely right. God's miracles all seem as though they were made by nature, rather than God. This is because God knows the future.

For example, in Revelation, when it says that if we attack Iraq, we will suffer the wrath of God. The COVID pandemic was not created by God, but Revelation 15 predicted the pandemic because conditions were set in place to create it.

 

[blü 2]

Do you think we have free will to make choices or do you think that fate/God is controlling everything we do? In other words, can we make our own choices or is everything we will ever do already been decided upon by God and we are just acting out what has been written on the Tablet of Fate? Are we all just actors in a movie that God has scripted?

Will can be free in the sense that A may be in a position to choose between X and Y without external constraint.

But I can't see how will can be free in any absolute sense. We're evolved creatures and our brains have at least two levels of evolved decisions-making processes, instinctive (as for example in sport), and considered, as when you;'re thinking of changing jobs or buying a new car &c. Each of those follows the procedures of the brain; there's no way of deciding independently of your brain's decision-making processes. These involve multiple interacting chains of cause and effect, procedures totally invisible to consciousness,

Even if you reject that, if God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, perfect, as [his] billing says in Christianity and, to the best of my understanding, in Judaism and Islam too, then God perfectly knew and intended everything that would ever happen in the universe, including everything anyone will ever think, say or do, right down to every letter of this post. and all the bucks stop at [his] desk ─ there's no other possibility from those premises.

I ask this because I do not think I have the free will to change much of anything in my life yet I feel like I need to change many things. But I cannot seem to change them. I am very strong willed person so whenever I set out to do something it gets done, but I cannot seem to make up my mind to do certain things and do them, so I feel stuck in a lifestyle I do not like.

Is not your complaint, then, not lack of the power to make unconstrained choices, but personal indecision?

And if so, isn't it therefore time to get outside advice, a wise and trusted friend, or a professional counselor?

(And if the real brake on your enterprising side is depression, then maybe the place to start is walking for a hour each day. It can make a hack of a difference.)

 

[Trailblazer]

Is not your complaint, then, not lack of the power to make unconstrained choices, but personal indecision?

And if so, isn't it therefore time to get outside advice, a wise and trusted friend, or a professional counselor?

I think that is part of the problem, personal indecision, and I have sought help from a counselor who I plan to see next month.

My motto is that no decision is better than making the wrong decision unless it is something I have to make a decision about. There is nothing that fits that category right now, it is just my living situation and my physical surroundings that are disturbing, but I do not think there is any solution, at least not right now. My husband has been ill so that takes priority over everything else. I can only deal with so much at one time.

 

[blü 2]

I think that is part of the problem, personal indecision, and I have sought help from a counselor who I plan to see next month.

My motto is that no decision is better than making the wrong decision unless it is something I have to make a decision about. There is nothing that fits that category right now, it is just my living situation and my physical surroundings that are disturbing, but I do not think there is any solution, at least not right now. My husband has been ill so that takes priority over everything else. I can only deal with so much at one time.

I wish you the very best in what's clearly a tough time.

 

[RestlessSoul]

This is a paradox really; freed will may be largely illusory, but human beings are incredibly strong willed creatures.

I think the one choice we always have, is between trying to impose our own will upon the world, and of seeking to know and do God’s will for us. Neither path is easy, but only one can lead to peace.

As for making a decision, any path undertaken in good faith will be the right one for us at that time; and it’s never too late to change the road your on.

 

[WalterTrull]

Might be a cart and horse thing.
I don't believe any of us truly understand ourselves, let alone God.
The closest I can get to understanding lies in the Lord's Prayer. In my past, something always happens to force the right move. Depending on my resistance, sometimes the nudge is not so gentle or comfortable.

 

[Hermit Philosopher]

Do you think we have free will to make choices or do you think that fate/God is controlling everything we do? In other words, can we make our own choices or is everything we will ever do already been decided upon by God and we are just acting out what has been written on the Tablet of Fate? Are we all just actors in a movie that God has scripted?

I ask this because I do not think I have the free will to change much of anything in my life yet I feel like I need to change many things. But I cannot seem to change them. I am very strong willed person so whenever I set out to do something it gets done, but I cannot seem to make up my mind to do certain things and do them, so I feel stuck in a lifestyle I do not like.

Maybe I am stuck because it is not meant to be that I change anything right now, because I am doing what God has willed/scripted for me, or maybe I should be doing these things. One thing I know is that I cannot make myself do things to change my situation even though I am somewhat unhappy with the way certain things are.

This has nothing to do with money because I have plenty of money, much more than I could ever spend in my lifetime, even if I never worked one more day of my life. Time is an issue since there is only so much time, but why can’t I decide to take the time to do things that I feel I need to do? I am not a lazy person, anything but, so that is not the reason. I am also physically fit and mentally capable, so that’s not it either.

Dear Trailblazer

Even if we say that Man has free will and freedom of choice, the will must be there for a choice to be made.

When you have had the will to do/change something, you have, you say.

Is your question whether the reason for your lack of sufficient will to do/change certain other things, is due to God or due to yourself? Perhaps that depends on whether those “things” are worldly or spiritual…?


Humbly
Hermit

 

[KerimF]

Do you think we have free will to make choices or do you think that fate/God is controlling everything we do? In other words, can we make our own choices or is everything we will ever do already been decided upon by God and we are just acting out what has been written on the Tablet of Fate? Are we all just actors in a movie that God has scripted?

I ask this because I do not think I have the free will to change much of anything in my life yet I feel like I need to change many things. But I cannot seem to change them. I am very strong willed person so whenever I set out to do something it gets done, but I cannot seem to make up my mind to do certain things and do them, so I feel stuck in a lifestyle I do not like.

Maybe I am stuck because it is not meant to be that I change anything right now, because I am doing what God has willed/scripted for me, or maybe I should be doing these things. One thing I know is that I cannot make myself do things to change my situation even though I am somewhat unhappy with the way certain things are.

This has nothing to do with money because I have plenty of money, much more than I could ever spend in my lifetime, even if I never worked one more day of my life. Time is an issue since there is only so much time, but why can’t I decide to take the time to do things that I feel I need to do? I am not a lazy person, anything but, so that is not the reason. I am also physically fit and mentally capable, so that’s not it either.

A human may have just 'one' free will when he may need in some situations to choose between living the unconditional love towards all others and being guided by his natural pre-programmed instincts of survival.

Therefore, those who perceive in them just a human living flesh, they don't need this 'unique free will' because living such love contradicts their instincts and all laws, said of a god or man.

The irony is that I personally can't ignore applying this free will in my life whenever I face unusual situations. And I see myself resisting the pre-programmed instructions of my flesh and loving even those who are created to play my enemies.

So don't worry, the majority in the world is created just to serve the world (as all other living things are) without the need to have any free will. The good news is that this doesn't prevent all of them to think they have free will every time they take a crucial decision (i.e. following a certain embedded instruction of a rather complex conditional jump).

 

[Colt]

Do you think we have free will to make choices or do you think that fate/God is controlling everything we do? In other words, can we make our own choices or is everything we will ever do already been decided upon by God and we are just acting out what has been written on the Tablet of Fate? Are we all just actors in a movie that God has scripted?

I ask this because I do not think I have the free will to change much of anything in my life yet I feel like I need to change many things. But I cannot seem to change them. I am very strong willed person so whenever I set out to do something it gets done, but I cannot seem to make up my mind to do certain things and do them, so I feel stuck in a lifestyle I do not like.

Maybe I am stuck because it is not meant to be that I change anything right now, because I am doing what God has willed/scripted for me, or maybe I should be doing these things. One thing I know is that I cannot make myself do things to change my situation even though I am somewhat unhappy with the way certain things are.

This has nothing to do with money because I have plenty of money, much more than I could ever spend in my lifetime, even if I never worked one more day of my life. Time is an issue since there is only so much time, but why can’t I decide to take the time to do things that I feel I need to do? I am not a lazy person, anything but, so that is not the reason. I am also physically fit and mentally capable, so that’s not it either.

I can identify with this, but the solution is to own the truth about the true desires of my human self contrasted with my idealism. Rather than take personal responsibility humans delude themselves by implying that decisions based on self magically happened to them from some external force.

God hasn't scripted my willful decisions but God does have a will for me when I chose to follow it.

Paul contemplated this same issue but he called human instincts "sin".


Romans 7:15-20
New International Version

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

 

[Link]

Even though I believe that God is omniscient, I also believe that ''my'' free will, whether it may be illusory or not, feels real. Seems real. Deciding to post in this thread is known by God before I do it (my belief), but I'm making the choice. (or so it feels that way)

I don't believe that God wants to confuse things, this may be because I've come to overthink free will.

I don't believe God knows the future absolutely, and doesn't know who and will not go to heaven regarding the people brought to the world to be tested and is testing us in real time to see what we will choose to be.

 

[Wildswanderer]

Allow people to choose based upon what exactly? My personal opinion is that we are all figments of God's imagination, no harm no foul on God's part if He favors one over the other. We are all part of God's perfect plan whether we realize it or not. Muslims, Jews, Atheists, Pagans, Christians... ALL PLAY AN IMPORTANT PART, that is exactly why Jesus told us to love our neighbor as ourself, not our will be done but God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Do you suppose you will have free will in heaven?

If we don't have free will, about 80 percent of the Bible would be irrelevant. Why give us all kinds of advice on how to live and commands about how to live, if we are fated in everything and can't really make any choices about doing good or evil?
And choosing to love our neighbor and choosing to do God's will cannot happen unless we have free will. If it's all scripted, we actually make no choices at all, we only think we do.

 

[1213]

Do you think we have free will to make choices or do you think that fate/God is controlling everything we do? ...

I think free will doesn’t mean that we can control everything, it means only that we can freely want what ever we want. And I don’t know about you, but I have free will, I can want whatever I want freely, no one is doing it on behalf of me. And every action I make, I am responsible by myself.

 

[We Never Know]

Do you think we have free will to make choices or do you think that fate/God is controlling everything we do? In other words, can we make our own choices or is everything we will ever do already been decided upon by God and we are just acting out what has been written on the Tablet of Fate? Are we all just actors in a movie that God has scripted?

I ask this because I do not think I have the free will to change much of anything in my life yet I feel like I need to change many things. But I cannot seem to change them. I am very strong willed person so whenever I set out to do something it gets done, but I cannot seem to make up my mind to do certain things and do them, so I feel stuck in a lifestyle I do not like.

Maybe I am stuck because it is not meant to be that I change anything right now, because I am doing what God has willed/scripted for me, or maybe I should be doing these things. One thing I know is that I cannot make myself do things to change my situation even though I am somewhat unhappy with the way certain things are.

This has nothing to do with money because I have plenty of money, much more than I could ever spend in my lifetime, even if I never worked one more day of my life. Time is an issue since there is only so much time, but why can’t I decide to take the time to do things that I feel I need to do? I am not a lazy person, anything but, so that is not the reason. I am also physically fit and mentally capable, so that’s not it either.

Free will - the ability to act at one's own discretion.

Anyone that post here on this forum exhibits free will.

In my opinion the arguenent isn't the existence of free will but how it came about,,, god given or naturally evolved.

 

[Clara Tea]

I have plenty of money, much more than I could ever spend in my lifetime, even if I never worked one more day of my life.

Toss the cat....adopt me.