• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

How do you exactly define 'free will'?

Willamena

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
Thief said:
Quotients.....in your head.
Click to expand...
The assertion then is that what goes on in your head will cease to be when you expire. In this way they "do not exist," but can things that don't exist (ideas) not have a significant impact on the real world? Think Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi.
 
Thief

Thief

Rogue Theologian
Willamena said:
The assertion then is that what goes on in your head will cease to be when you expire. In this way they "do not exist," but can things that don't exist (ideas) not have a significant impact on the real world? Think Martin Luther King and Mahatma Ghandi.
Click to expand...

Thinking does not possess creation.
You may hold any idea you care to.....
Good thing most of us do not have the power of creation.
 
Willamena

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
Thief said:
Thinking does not possess creation.
You may hold any idea you care to.....
Good thing most of us do not have the power of creation.
Click to expand...
Thinking is creation. God brought the world into being in Genesis with a word (thought).
 
Thief

Thief

Rogue Theologian
Willamena said:
Thinking is creation. God brought the world into being in Genesis with a word (thought).
Click to expand...

It was His will.
Thought is idle until something comes of it.
And that action made is the evidence.

If your hand does anything at all.....you thought you should.....or you felt like it.
 
joshua3886

joshua3886

Great Purple Hippo
Acting freely upon your own will or desires. If you do things because of the will of a book or another person that it is not your own will.
 
rrosskopf

rrosskopf

LDS High Priest
We are capable of applying different solutions to the same problem. That's free will. Although we have some instinct, unlike other animals we are not held captive by it. We are enticed by two very opposite life styles, and we get to break the tie. We get to vote, if only for ourselves. We are capable of carnality, sensuality and devilishness, but we are also capable of civility, love, charity, spirituality.
 
Thief

Thief

Rogue Theologian
joshua3886 said:
Acting freely upon your own will or desires. If you do things because of the will of a book or another person that it is not your own will.
Click to expand...

You skipped the process of thought and the rendering of being convinced.

If you want to influence the 'will' of the people....you could....
Convince them God wants them to.....religion.
Convince them you have the plan and the dream......politics.
Gain control of a small army and point guns at resisters.....militia.
Last but not least.....money.
There's money in it for me....a paycheck for you....the timeclock is over there.....

Now if you want to draw a line to those things you have control over.......
 
Nakosis

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
rrosskopf said:
We are capable of applying different solutions to the same problem. That's free will. Although we have some instinct, unlike other animals we are not held captive by it. We are enticed by two very opposite life styles, and we get to break the tie. We get to vote, if only for ourselves. We are capable of carnality, sensuality and devilishness, but we are also capable of civility, love, charity, spirituality.
Click to expand...


Sounds good. I supposed ultimately even I see free will as illusion. However our reality works on illusion, like the value of paper money, is an illusion. So what? We accept the reality of it. Free will whether illusion or not, it is our reality so why not work with this reality as it presents itself to us.
 
rrosskopf

rrosskopf

LDS High Priest
Nakosis said:
Sounds good. I supposed ultimately even I see free as an illusion.
Click to expand...

I suspect people over think this. Focusing on all of the environmental factors that lead up to our decision ignores the fact that it is still our decision. Free will is not another word for random.
 
Thief

Thief

Rogue Theologian
rrosskopf said:
Free will does not imply randomness. It does imply that intelligence is used in reaching a decision.
Click to expand...

Almost agree here.....but...
that my hand does what I know I must...
it also responds to the immediate emotional event.
 
Blackmarch

Blackmarch

W'rkncacntr
what is free will as i see it?
the mental ability to choose between the choices one has before them.

Freedom is the number of choices that one has to choose from.
 
Last edited:
Gambit

Gambit

Well-Known Member
Mestemia said:
I have found that a lot of people tend to define free will in such a manner as to render the whole concept useless.
For example, I once had a fellow tell me that there is no such thing as free will because he cannot fly like a bird.
Click to expand...

Well, if I want to fly like a bird (and I can't), then I am not really free to do whatever it is that I want to do. Right?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top