A quick thought.
It seems to me that there is a major flaw in the arguments made by those who like to suggest that free-will does not exist. According to those who deny free-will, choice is an illusion. Apparently the idea of free-will and the modern scientific view of the nature of reality, are, for many top scientists, incompatible. Free-will, according to them, cannot exist.
I was reading an article in the Guardian that suggested that if we (humanity) realised that our actions are determined by external forces and are not our own, this would lead to certain people becoming more anti-social because those people could claim: ‘It wasn’t my fault it was fate that made me do it.’ In other words, if we realise we have no free-will our behaviour will change.
This argument feels non-sensical to me. If the course of humanity can change because of an advance in knowledge, then that itself proves that free-will does exist and we do have the ability to change the course of history through our choices.
If humanity can be diverted from its course because of new knowledge, free-will must play a part in human experience otherwise our course would stay the same.
I find the whole free-will debate interesting because it puts into question our current understanding of the nature of reality – at least from the scientific perspective which is, after all, the predominant viewpoint by far.
As someone who enjoys the challenge of trying to understand how and why reality exists and why it is the way it is, I find the question of free-will fascinating. I’m not worried if reality turns out to be deterministic but I don’t see how it can be that way. What I think the argument reveals is that we are far, far from understanding the wonder of existence.
The above thought is just a cheeky challenge to those lovely people who believe that the world is deterministic. Our entire society is built around the idea that we all have choices. What if we don’t? Let me know what you think about free-will.
