The Concept of Freewill
//I’m going to explore this topic from the perspective of someone who doesn’t subscribe to a religion. I don’t want to impose my beliefs upon anyone, but I find this topic to be very interesting and have a few opinions on it. I’m going to get pretty deep and entertain some contested philosophical theories in this essay because I think it’s important to consider all possibilities.//
To me, the world is a series of dice rolls. At any moment there is a chance for just about anything to happen. At any moment walking down the street, there is a chance that you could be robbed or a car could crash right in front of you. In the morning, there’s a chance that you won’t wake up to your alarm or a chance you can stub your toe on the bed frame. There is a chance for anything to happen from the most inconsequential things to the most life changing events. It all matters on the dice roll. This is a scary thing to think about as it sounds like you have no control over your surroundings, and to an extent you don’t.
However, I do believe that you can influence the odds by making choices to better the odds of these things not happening. You can choose a safer route home to avoid being robbed. You can raise the volume on your alarm or move it closer to your head. You can avoid walking close to the bed frame so you don’t stub your toe. These choices lessen the odds of things happening to you. But is it freewill that guides these choices?
It’s possible that these choices are simply the modern manifestation of your prehistoric survival and risk avoidant instincts. You make these choices to minimize the chances of harm either to you or people around you. When it comes to bigger decisions such as what career to pursue or what car to buy, there are still aspects of that survival instinct manifesting in these choices. Which job will be able to provide for you and/or your family? Which car will be convenient or fun to drive? I think it’s arguable that these modern choices could be freewill, but at the end of the day you are trying to survive and live the best life.
Considering the multiple timeline theory, maybe there are branching paths in our own timeline. Maybe there exists a timeline in which you chose a different career, or one in which you were more/less fortunate, or one in which you made an evil choice. The possibilities are endless. It’s like rolling an infinite amount of 20 sided dice and seeing what happens. Or maybe it’s a simulation and everything is predetermined, or there’s a path chosen for you by a divine entity. It’s hard to know but is something to consider.
At the end of the day, though; I do think freewill exists. Our ability to understand morals and weigh the pros/cons of different choices, to me, lends itself to the existence of freewill. Otherwise, why would we be able to make choices? We can only know what we experience and in my experience, I think we make our own choices.
//This ended up being a little longer than intended, but I love talking about philosophical ideas like this and love to discuss them. If anyone is interested in having a discussion about this or disagree with my beliefs, I would love to talk about it. Thanks for reading!//
