Summary:
• Some religious and scientific theories claim that free will is an illusion. However, none of those theories can fully prove it.
• Free will is difficult to define. It can mean freedom from outside control, or it can mean freedom to act in particular ways.
• Human behavior is shaped by biology, upbringing, culture, and circumstances, all of which can limit how “free” our choices may feel.
• Hunger, fatigue, coercion, and lack of technology show that some human choices are limited. Nevertheless, people still make decisions and, at least to that extent, have free will.
• Near death experiencers describe Home (or Heaven, or Paradise) as peaceful and free of violence. That description prompts questions about whether free will requires the possibility of experiencing harm.
• Despite debates over the existence and nature of free will, both religion and science agree that personal responsibility and moral decision making do matter. If free will is even partially an illusion, the experience of choosing still shapes our lives and actions.
• Thinking about free will can be interesting, but daily life still requires making choices and living with the consequences.
There are some theories that free will is an illusion. One religious theory is called predestination. It asserts that Hell exists, that humans have one life on Earth, and that if you die as an unforgiven sinner, then God knew before you were born that you would be destined for Hell and for eternal punishment.
One of the scientific theories against free will is called the block Universe theory. It proposes that the past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. If the future already exists, then your future decisions are already decided and you cannot choose otherwise, even if you tried to. Another such theory is that humans, including you, are the result of millions of years of natural evolution and that we behave according to biological traits that cannot be easily ignored, such as needing food and sleep, and that we are influenced by countless variables including culture, personal upbringing, circumstances, and habits. Those traits, needs, and influences do not leave much room, if any, for genuine free will.
Part of the mystery of free will is how to define the term. Free will refers to freedom, but freedom in relationship to what? Free will can be interpreted as freedom from something, a relationship that some philosophers call negative freedom. Freedom from government control is a form of negative freedom. Free will can also be interpreted as freedom to do something, which some philosophers call positive freedom. For example, if a government provides a person with enough financial assistance, such as a good pension, then that person has the freedom to relax and do things other than struggle to survive. If free will involves decisions made by the mind, however, then negative freedom and positive freedom are conditions that exist outside of the mind. They are conditions the mind responds to, and different people will respond differently. Which is more important, negative freedom or positive freedom? People disagree.
If a powerful drug alters a person’s mind and causes the person to become completely obedient to outside commands, is mentally unable to disobey, then does the person have free will? If the person is not under the influence of a mind-altering drug, does the person have free will? If a person is suffering coercion and duress and is told to do something or else that person will suffer retaliation, does the person have free will? If the person refuses to obey and suffers retaliation for refusing, did the person express free will?
When you eat something because you are hungry, are you expressing free will? Or was your decision physically pressured by hunger? When you fall asleep because you are tired, are you expressing free will? If you force yourself to stay awake as long as possible but, eventually, you fall asleep, have you lost your free will?
Humans have wanted to fly since at least ancient times, but for thousands of years the technology for human flight did not exist. When humans wanted to fly but lacked the technology to, was their free will being denied?
According to near-death experiencers who say they visited the realm that Christians call Heaven and Muslims call Paradise, they say that realm contains love and joy, but no sadness and no violence. Does the absence of sadness and violence represent a lack of free will?
Whether or not genuine free will exists can be a fascinating topic to think about, but this topic is also largely irrelevant to how you live your daily life. Despite a few controversial theories, both religion and science overwhelmingly emphasize the importance of making decisions based on morality and a knowledge of what would be best for the health and prosperity of yourself and others. Both religion and science urge us—they urge you—to take responsibility. Personal responsibility would be meaningless if you already knew the future and could not change it, no matter what you did. The reality is that your knowledge of the future is limited and always will be, there is always some mystery, even if you knew every fact about everything and used super-computers to make predictions.
Free will has been called God’s greatest gift. Free will is more than the fact of your existence. It is more than your existence plus your awareness that you exist. Free will means that you can make deliberate decisions. On Earth, humans have this privilege in more breadth and depth than any other biological species. In a material Universe, some of those decisions are easy to make because circumstances encourage an obvious choice, such as deciding to eat when you feel hungry. Other decisions are more difficult but still decisions, which come with responsibilities and even questions of morality. You do not need to believe in God to accept that morality is important because decisions have consequences. Even a choice not to decide is still a decision.
If the soul is an illusion, nevertheless the soul is a very important illusion. If free will is an illusion, nevertheless the illusion of free will is even more important. If you decide to spend some time thinking about whether or not free will exists, then that is your choice. But eventually, and probably on the same day, you will make decisions governing your life, ordinary decisions, daily decisions such as whether to walk somewhere, or read something, or talk to someone and what to talk about. The mystery of free will can become a mental trap—until you resume living your life.