A is for Atheism

The Denial of Freewill

    I know everyone would like to believe in freewill. There is a sense of powerlessness that comes with thinking that we are bound to do what we are bound to do, but I see no other choice. I will take a look at two possibilities that both end up in denial of freewill, the first will be the Deterministic way and the second will be through the eyes of an all knowing creator. These are probably the two most common views of the cosmos. 

    Determinism can be thought of as thinking that humans are biological machines. We have pistons that pump, juices that flow, and a working cpu, so for one to do an action it requires a combination of internal forces working together. In this way it can be said that freewill becomes an illusion. I know what you are thinking, "so what we are machines that doesn't ruin freewill." You are right there that alone would not ruin freewill, until we looked at it from a grander perspective. Imagine ,if you will,  that you know the cause and effect of everything that ever happened in this universe. You see the universe in its entirety before you. Now does freewill exist? I would say it does not because the causal chain of events would be predictable. If there is a great enough mind capable of deducing the cause of things then the effects and the effects of the effects ect. ect. would be known also. Another way of looking at this is think of it as a mathematical formula. 1+2=3 for example is an example of a causal event. A great enough formula and mathematical calculation could figure out the string of events which would lead to every event to ever happen. This leaves freewill to its illusion, but what about God? Surely God can give us freewill.

    Nope. Well, as long as God is omniscient then freewill cannot exist. If any being whether God or mortal could ever receive knowledge of everything that ever happened then they would already know the outcomes of events. For instance if God were to say set up rules in which if they would not be followed then humans would be tortured in everlasting hell, then he would be setting up those rules with the knowledge that some good people would end up there. Essecially as soon as someone knows everything than anything you do from that point on is predestined to happen. If omniscients exists then freewill does not. Choice shrinks down to a nothingness.

    Freewill is ultimately a culmination of all of our wants, what I desire is my freewill. Even what I desire then becomes a product of a formula of desires. Free will seems to me to be left floating on the breeze somewhere just outside of what we consider possible.

Posted at 11:39AM Oct 29, 2007 by Dan Benjamin Smart in General  |  Comments[0]