The concept of free will

Day 2,601, 14:04 • Published in USA USA • by 2503830

The concept of free will

An article a few days ago inspired me to write this piece. While the author there chose to focus on the game events i will focus on the concept of "free will" itself and will try to argue that it is an illusion and we are all victims of causality and a sort of environmental determinism.
Now everyone knows about the debate of free will vs determinism. Everyone also assumes that those advocating for determinism are also religious, who would more likely think that "god" ( replace with your favorite belief ) would be the ultimate dictator.
This is actually not true - but i will get back to this idea later - as nature itself is pretty deterministic and yet has no intelligence as a god would have.

Another big issue is that if free will would ever be accepted as an illusion, then our justice system as we know it would make no sense. How would it be moral to punish people for things they cannot control, and yet we are doing this today.
I will also go into more detail on this issue as i go on.

First of all, let's take a subject, we'll call him Andy.
Andy is grown into a stable society and environment and grows up without incidents. He develops a taste for science and culture as a result of his upbringing and environment.
Now, think about it: Did Andy "choose" to be scientifically inclined? Or was his environment the one that "caused" him to lean towards that career.

Here's the same Andy but this time the family is a mess, his environment is poor and dangerous with criminals and thugs all over. He grows up selling crack and working for small time gangsters to earn a meager living.
I can bet you the same Andy will not pick science as his career.

And this is scientifically proven.
And we can extend this to everything. To you who read this - you clicked the button to read this because you were brought up in an environment that built up in you an inquisitive nature - you were curious.
Or maybe you came to leave a nasty comment, in which case your environment again is the one at fault - stress, familial issues, problematic childhood or relationship, etc caused you to be angry.

Or maybe...and you can go on.
Even picking the favorite soft drink.
Say you like Coke. Why do you like coke?
Did you "choose" to like coke? Unlikely. But seeing so many ads you were 'programmed' to like it. Of course the taste did help.
This explains "loyal customers".
Pepsi and Coke are more or less the same thing.
Yet each brand has ferociously loyal fan base. How come? Easy, they were more exposed to environmental images that programmed them a certain way.

So in reality free will is an illusion, our own denial of causality and lack of freedom of choice.
Do you think you 'decide' to fall in love? Hah!
Anything you make, anything you think has a cause. And that cause is always out of your hands.

And now the fun part. How would a justice system work if the premise of 'free will' would be called into question?
Answer: it wouldn't. Or at least not in the way we think of it now. Or it would drop any pretense of "morality" or "justice" and it would simply be punishment for the sake of punishment..or perhaps revenge ( another 'out of your hands' reaction ).
So our very justice system depends on people believing that they have free will.
Our economic system depends on you thinking you have free will: "The American Dream" you *can* make it if only you decide to and work hard !
Laughable indeed.

Does this article make you sad? Depressed maybe?
A natural chemical response developing in your brain to be sure. You could close this - or maybe if you feel angry at the 'cause' ( my article ), i suppose you could report it?
These reactions are - again - of course with their own explanation and causes: your upbringing and state of mind at the moment.
I personally believe that knowledge and understanding should trump petty irrational fears.
But hey, that is because i was raised a certain way 🙂

If you survived until now , off to the comments with you! 😃

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