Free Will

[Obscurus]

Note: I'm going to be posting this in a number of places.

Do you have free will? Most of us will say that we do but the evidence is at odds with that assertion. It should come as no surprise to anyone that all of our bodily functions and movements are controlled by the brain. Specifically, the electrical impulses within the brain. How then, can our consciousness induce electrical impulses in our brains that cause our actions and thoughts? There is no part of the brain that is the seat of our free will or consciousness.

One might argue that while electrical impulses cause the actions, our urges are what give rise to the actions. As it turns out, through placing electrodes on the brain, these "urges" can be induced as well as the actions that would flow from said urges. Not only this, but we can be tricked into believing we intentionally performed actions that we, in fact, did not. This works in reverse, we being fooled into believing that we are merely receiving input when in fact that "input" is arising from within us. Free will really is a tricky thing to wrap your mind around. It seems that our conscious intentions are really just the by-product of something that is already going on inside of our brains, beyond our control.

To go a little deeper into this, let's consider what we're made of and where that all began. Within a few moments of the universe beginning, everything that was, is, or ever will be was set in motion. All the stuff that makes up you or me or the planets or the stars can all be traced back to that moment. Now, stuff interacted with other stuff, hence changing the properties of all the stuff. Is it conceivable, in a Newtonian sense, that everything that goes on in our heads, the motions of molecules, electrons, etc. can all be traced back through a long, long series of interactions to that initial moment of creation? Running with this, everything that we do, everything that we are, was determined at the moment of creation. Does this sound like free will?

What are your thoughts?  

[Obscurus]

Denesca

I think that the soul overlaps the body. What I mean by that is, the soul does and can affect the body, but the body can also affect the soul, and that they stay integrated like that until death.

For example: You can have a chemical imbalance in your brain that makes you feel depressed, or you make the decision to think depressing thoughts and create the chemical imbalance.

Of course, this can make a sort of feedback loop. You can have a chemical imbalance that would make you mildly depressed, but then you could make the choice to think even more depressing thoughts, which would create an even greater chemical imbalance.

I think our souls are basically... like areas of consciousness. They're not only in our bodies, they're integrated with them and maybe even expand beyond them. There's a lot of action going on between the soul and brain for sure, but to me, I think it's silly to point to one area on your body and say, "This is me."

Aaaaaand I'm going to stop myself right now before I go rambling about other tangents. >.>

Your thoughts parallel my own in some ways. I too wouldn't want to risk expanding on it much right now because I might confuse myself and others. xd  

[Kuroitchi]

i think its the spirits(soul and spirit are 2 different things.) activity in the body that animates us and keeps us alive. the soul has its seat in the spirit.  

[Taigamma]

It seems that I may need to changed my responses from now on.

Instead of "this is me" I will say "This is the majority of me however the rest is flowing throughout".  

[PrometheanSet]

Lets examine this from a couple of perspectives.

In this moment, I have choices to make. The results of those choices will feed back into my decision making processes.

On the abstract, time is linear and unstoppable. As far back as can be seen, the past is immovable. As far forward as the future can be seen, we get some leeway, based on our choices, but some things are basically set in stone from our past and present (and dare I say "fate"?).

So, do we have free will? Sorta, Sometimes, maybe, but it depends.  

[Dasuto]

free will.... to tell the truth I have never gave it much thought. I do think our souls define us, but then why is it so hard to remember our past life's? Even if we don't know about them they still influence us in small ways. For example all I know about my past life's is, that I was a wanderer, and to this day I hate being tied down. Okay got off topic, going back on. We make our futures a reality, no one can tell us what to become, we strive to fulfill those child wishes we all had, sometimes we get lost along the path we have set, but it only takes one step to get back on, or to create a new one. So yes I believe in Free Will.  

[mikeplusplus]

Yay I get to talk about quantum theory I learned from the History Channel!

So...Imagine that you are walking down a street. That street branches into two directions, and those two directions branch into two directions, and on and on into infinity. We'll also pretend that you decide to go right. Well, according to this theory, whenever a decision like that is made, the universe copies itself, and in this alternate universe, you decided to go left. And this would happen every time you made a decision, on and on into infinity.

Again, this is all just theory, but it explains how something can know the future and simultaneously allow for free will. Now is there something like "fate"? I honestly don't know.  

[Obscurus]

MikePlusPlus

Yay I get to talk about quantum theory I learned from the History Channel!

So...Imagine that you are walking down a street. That street branches into two directions, and those two directions branch into two directions, and on and on into infinity. We'll also pretend that you decide to go right. Well, according to this theory, whenever a decision like that is made, the universe copies itself, and in this alternate universe, you decided to go left. And this would happen every time you made a decision, on and on into infinity.

Again, this is all just theory, but it explains how something can know the future and simultaneously allow for free will. Now is there something like "fate"? I honestly don't know.

How do we know that we made the choice to go right in the first place though? There's more to the idea of free will than infinite universes for each decision. We have to examine how we came to that decision in the first place and whether we did it freely or not.