Free Will Or Not Free Will...That Is the QUESTION?

reply to post by DelayedChristmas



Here's the 'rub'...

...at some point along the way, all of the 'illumined' minds on this thread in particular...decided to...

1: turn the computer on...or, it was just 'there', and 'on'...
2: read a thread...or, they have no preference for anything in particular...
3: respond to a post/thread (in a particular way)... Or, they made no such decision...

...mostly everything you do can broken down into a decision made by you, or a decision made by another 'unit' (which you may need to react to!)...all this crap about 'things just happening' is total and absolute guff...like saying you are spontaneously reacting to everything around you...total and absolute guff...the very 'act' of saying this is a decision that you make freely...And is by definition - not spontaneous...

The situation you are in, is a combination of decisions you remember making, and decisions you dont remember making...

A situation of NON-FREE WILL does not exist...yet, because of the 'forgetting' after births...this is how it appears...and here we are on a forum which discusses whether things are they way they appear...

...it will appear any way 'you' want it to appear...not anyone else!...'you'...since the experience of it is for you, and you alone...FREE WILL determines that you see it/experience it, any way you want...otherwise you are being forced to experience everything?!...and that would imply that you had some say in it?!...or you are a robot...so dont worry about it...

The whole 'FREE WILL, no FREE WILL' debate is moot...if you are willing to hold a 'position' on it, read on it, respond to other posters about it...you gotta ask yourself some serious questions - if you think it doesn't exist...

A99

reply to post by akushla99


Lol, what he said. He doesn't seem to understand every time he responds he is exercising free will.

Did Paul the apostle have freewill on the road to Damascus? Did John the Baptist have free will or did he have a destine to fulfill?

What is the difference between destine and freewill?

reply to post by guitarplayer


Free will is the choices you make on your own regardless of the factors that go into you making that decision.

Destiny is that girl that dances around a pole for tips at the gentleman's club.

reply to post by guitarplayer


Fate...

In other words, "fate" relates to events of the future and present of an individual and in cases in literature unalterable, whereas "destiny" relates to the probable future. Fate implies no choice, but with destiny the entity participates in achieving an outcome that is directly related to itself. Participation happens willfully.

The choices you make using Free will lead to your destiny, sometimes the destiny is predetermined, but you still have to drive to get there, often times we ignore our destination and try shortcuts, get lost...the free will of others will have an affect on your ability to reach your destiny.

Quoting scripture doesn't change this, which was also a Free will choice of yours. What happened in the New Testament only proves this. There were some people in another time that decided, using Free will, to rewrite history from an older version of a writing that itself was fabricated using Free will, all the while influencing the Free will of those that choose to follow said writing's as the truth.

reply to post by littled16


Oh you know her too? She is such a hussy!

The choices you make using Free will lead to your destiny, sometimes the destiny is predetermined, but you still have to drive to get there, often times we ignore our destination and try shortcuts, get lost...the free will of others will have an affect on your ability to reach your destiny.

The denotative and connotative definition of fate and destiny can be interchanged and one and the same, unlike the wikipedia definition, that doesn't have a cited reference to its information

That doesn't make any sense to me. You say sometimes destiny is predetermined, but the choices you make using free will lead to your destiny.... The question is... Why would you even have destiny in the first place??? Destiny would be MOOT if free will leads to your destiny because fate is outside of YOUR control, technically speaking.

Lets use the analogy of destiny and driving on a road like you put it. You say we ignore our destination and try shortcuts, which leads us to get lost. How do you know if that little shortcut that you take leads you to get "lost" actually makes you "lost???" Eventually, you get back on the highway and another detour exit comes up. This time, after experiencing the journey when taking the detour, you say NAH.

Is taking that detour exercising your free will? I say no because, in the bigger picture, you had to take that detour just so you could learn to continue on that highway so that when another detour comes by, you say NO.

Never once, in my responses, have I ever said anything to warrant such ill mannered responses. I have stated my piece continuously and continuously, nothing more, nothing less. There's a difference between aggression and assertion, and that line is important when trying to discuss subjects of this matter.

reply to post by DelayedChristmas


I know asking this question is moot but I will ask anyway? Ever heard of Palmistry? When you are born one hand has very distinct lines in it and the other doesn't.

One hand is the hand of "Destiny", the blue prints that your soul burned into your body at the time of connection.

The other hand is not written yet, because you have not started your journey. Once you begin making "Free Will" choices the blank slate starts to take shape, some of the lines match and some do not. Some of those changes occurred because of the Free Will" choices of others, detours that you had no choice over, but had to overcome in order to get back on the right path.

Some of those choices were made by you, the lessons we learn either way are invaluable and still become part of our destiny, even if they were not originally intended to take place.

Souls regress and progress through the course of every existence, but the goal should always remain the same regardless...be the best person you can be and try to have true love in your heart every day...we never know when our destiny has arrived.

Now I will apologize to you, but I will not apologize for trying to get you to see the truth. Free will exist because it has to. There is no ability on our part to escape it. No one lives their life without being affected by Free Will, either their own or others. PERIOD.

If you refuse to see that, that is your choice...see there it is again, FREE WILL.

BAW33

reply to post by BrokenAngelWings33


I look at freewill like this

God knows every action a man will take before you take it. Thus you have exercised your free will. However whatever you exercise to do with your freewill has a consequence. Since God being all knowing knew what you would choose he laid out a future based on those choices. So each subsequent decision that you make further defines your future.

I think many concepts can be rolled into one. Freewill, foreknowledge, Election, the body of Christ. Concepts that are too complicated to fully understand.

I think you can look at each of these as a piece to the world's largest jigsaw puzzle, foreknowledge allowed God to put together a puzzle that fit together perfectly. In this way his judgment is righteous and it is TODAY. Each of us was placed in the exact circumstance that we both deserve to be in and that we can learn best from.

For anyone whose life has been less than what they feel they deserve there is judgment for all. You will be justified.

reply to post by sacgamer25


Free Will exist to allow souls to have freedom of choice. Consequences of their actions is implied. There is no grand plan, everything is subject to FREE will. That is not to say that the destination cannot be achieved, being one with your higher power is always the end result, which part is yet to be determined...even the higher power has 2 places to be a part of. Free will does have consequences. I would prefer to go to the light and to me true love in my heart is the way to get there. Semantics in religion are used to describe the same thing. I do not need a religion to tell me what is right or wrong. Sometimes, we have to learn things the hard way. I prefer to accept responsibility for my own behavior rather than giving that responsibility to my higher power. This is not to say that my higher power does not intervene sometimes, I still have to allow that to be the case, I can choose to ignore or I can choose to allow. Sometimes, I don't have a choice because it involves the FREE will of others and I am forced to deal with those consequences.