The Illusion Of Free Will Exposed!

By IndieVisible June 11. 2014

What is free will? A state of consciousness and awareness? Or just a feeling? Every thing we think, see, feel, taste, smell, see and hear are caused by chemical reactions in our brain that simulates and stimulates feelings and opinions. There is no objective point of view, it's all subjective and open to interpretation. Even religion is split on the issue of free will. Is it an illusion? Many philosophers say it is and base that on scientific facts we do know about the brain and how it works.

 You might feel you definitely have free will, after all you can chose to go to a movie and which movie you want to see and feel like it's your own decision. But that feeling you have is actually just a instinct, a feeling caused by chemical reactions in your brain. A more probable cause is the law of cause and effect, think of the domino effect. Many instincts turn out to be wrong, many feelings turn out to be unwarranted. 

Even the great Christian theologian John Calvin who started Calvinism, a very devout and conservative religious movement said man does not have free will, only God has free will, every thing else is predestined, already decided. he might have been closer to the truth then his colleagues who argued in favor of free will, after all with free will the bible becomes confusing and doesn't make much sense at all from a scientific point of view. But even from a non-religious point of view, free will does not make very much sense at all and seems to be in odds over every thing we do know about life, the universe, and the mind.

The movie The Matrix played on this point of view, every thing seemed so real in the Matrix, yet was not real at all but a simulated computer generated world. Then why do we still have instincts, and hunches? Because humans have not evolved far enough to survive without them. This is why religion plays such a ample part of life for so many people. We still need to use instinct instead of reason to survive much like other animals. Fear motivates us to either fight or flee.

So then who's really in control if we do not have free will? That depends on which model you feel more comfortable with. The model with God and the model with no god. With God, God is always in complete control, which means there is only God's Will, that man appears to go against His will only means a series of predetermined events resulted in certain actions which seem to be against God's Will but can not really be or otherwise man can trump God's Will thereby reducing God to fallible instead of infallible. Everything has already been decided.

If you feel more comfortable with the model with no god then substitute god with nature or the effects of the big bang. Everything is produced by cause and effects, again think the domino effect. Feelings are required for survival and feeling come and go and are not always correct.

If there is no outside observer then all this is entirely subjective to our own personal feelings. Belief is part of instinct, as is faith. Even undisputed scientific facts can later turn out to be wrong. Of course they were never really wrong, only our capability to understand them.

Finally if you still feel you have free will, ask yourself what have you ever willed that was not already available and changeable? Can you add another 2 inches to your height? Can you pick when to die? Did you chose to be born? Or are you a passenger on a ride with the illusion you have free will to chose some thing. Go ahead, chose some thing not available. You can then truly argue you have free will. Otherwise enjoy the illusion.