Did God give us free will?

ldrnomo

If we do have free will, what does that mean?

LD

PSacramento

We are 100% responsible for our actions and beliefs and we can't blame anyone or any organization for the direction we take.

Perry

Once, I thought I had free will... until someone convinced me otherwise.

It will come to you about 3:00 in the morning ...

sspo

How can we have free will when the bible says if we don't listen to God he will burn us in hell or destroy at Armageddon?

PSacramento

sspo,

Well, if you commit a crime you go to jail, its tsill up to you to commit the crim or not.

Punishment has very little to do with free will.

straightshooter

We are not robots.

Free will means that we can make choices, either good or bad.

Spook

No, and we didn't get it from nature either. We don't have "free will" if you bother to define it rigorously.

It think we have something which in the philosophical literature is called "agent causation." This is a compromise position between "free will" and strict determinism. It's compatible with what many people on the streets mean by free will and it is compatible with most theories of justice.

moshe

It depends what you mean by free will. Does my dog have free will? No. He is governed by instinct and a lack of reasoning ability prevents him from having free will.

Do I have free will? Compared to my dog, It seems I do. However, my wife might dispute my reasoning abilty based on some boneheaded decisions I have made.

I think that enough latent instinct exists in humans to override the decision making process during times of stress, fear and danger. That could negate free will decisons. So then we have come full circle and the answer is, NO, because of instinct , which unconsciously colors all decisions, we don't really have free will.

leavingwt

If he didn't, would we even realize that he didn't?

(Spook, where have you been?)

Dagney

If you believe he did, then he did.

Did God give us free will?

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