A philosophy question- part 2

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Free Willie:) I do believe that we are all born with the ability to learn, so when one is old enough to make decisions then yes it's all about free will. The law does apply here as well...if you break the law then you are using your free will in a manner that will take your free will away when caught...so learning how to use that will wisely, is another matter altogether.

My husband, when I asked him this question, brought up a bank robber. A bank robber can decide to shoot someone, or to leave without shooting anyone. I told him I'm not so sure. Hit the right set of triggers, and they will shoot because they see it as being their only option. He countered by telling me that they could decide whether to shoot to kill, or shoot to wound. I told him that again, with that person's history, if the right set of circumstances happens, it's going to make up his mind so that he feels like he doesn't have any other option but the one he chooses. Likewise, someone who stands up to the bank robber may have been through a series of circumstances so that he feels it is imperative that he stand up to the bank robber. Now, it all seems like free will, but the bank robber is standing there because he needs or wants quick money, the "hero" is standing there because he had to pay the mortgage, and the teller is there because a different employee called in sick. So even if there is free will (which I'm not sure about), the whole event was set in motion WAY before it ever happened.

I also belive in freeing Willie but that's beside the point.

In the case of the bank robber, he made the choice to rob the bank in the first place - free will. Everything else that follows is a result of that choice and he must make choices that correspond to his original choice. To shoot or not to shoot - if being killed in a gunfight is preferable to going to jail to him then he will risk that gunfight - if he would rather kill someone than be captured then he will shoot - if he would rather give up and go to jail than kill or be killed then he will do that. But these are all choices that he makes in the moment and it's all his free will.

As for the teller, yeah, there's free will and there's free will. But her her free will led her to be gainfully employed in a bank where she knew robbery was a possibility - it led her to come to work - it led her to take the window she was assigned instead of arguing for a different assignment, etc., etc., etc.

While the hero may feel it is imperative to stand up to the robber, he still has the choice not to stand up. Although I can't really prove this last one, I do believe it to be true.

Would not having free will bother me? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I do have my dark days when I wish I did not have to choose for myself. I do have days when I wish I did not have to accept, physically, mentally or emotionally, the responsibility for my actions. But when I am in my right mind I do want to be responsible for my own actions, I do want to be able to make my own choices, no matter what the consequences. If I make the wrong choice, I learn and I progress. If I make the right choice, I'm satisfied, fulfilled, whatever, and I progress.

Why would it bother me not to have free will? Well, what would be the use of it all if I was just a puppet with someone else pulling the strings? Why would I want to go through so much hardship and pain - and even the best life has plenty of hardship and pain - if I didn't have the freedom to choose my own actions? My answer is, I wouldn't. The cruelest joke I can think of is to die and find out that I've just been entertainment for a bunch of bored divine beings who used me as a game piece on a playing board.

The part about your present actions being the result of your past.

Of course, your choices are colored by your past. Your entire life is colored by your past. The things your parents did, the things you did, they all make up the fabric of your experience. And you make choices based on that experience.

I learned to drink, party like a madwoman and fuck like a slut from watching my mother. I didn't really exercise my free will in that, I just let my mother's behavior pull my little puppet strings. But I didn't like the way people treated me when I acted like that so I chose to change my behavior even though that change was completely foreign to what I knew.

People do that everyday, they step out of the pattern that they were raised in or that they have been living in and they exercise their free will to change that pattern because they have learned from it. And everyday people decide to remain in their current pattern and continue repeating themselves over and over. But it's all a choice and it's all free will.

that we have freewill to a degree. We can choose to do something or not do something and that choice will bring about a string of events that will lead to another decision which will bring about another string of events and so on. Basically, just branching off like the limbs of a tree until we reach the end.

and I'd have to because I believe in the laws of attraction, which basically says you'll bring into your life what you believe and how you live your life overall. The ultimate free will is trying to make a living working for yourself. Yeah, there are barriers at times, but at other times the sky is the limit, and there's nothing that keeps the money from coming into my life. And regardless of the money, everyone gets to choose whether or not they're going to be happy or positive, in spite of obstacles that come their way.

Can't get more free will than that.

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