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RicePaddy  ·  3355 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Do you believe in free will?

Yes, I believe in free will.

    Our brains make the decisions. Our brains are not exempt from physics, so I'm pretty certain it doesn't exist.

And that is why.

If we are simply the result of the complex physical and chemical reactions that govern how matter interacts with itself here in the universe; that's a pretty compelling argument for the non-existence of free will. In that scenario, everything we do; every choice, action, and even actions we decide not to take in order to try and display our own "free will" is just governed by these interactions between cells and signals in the brain. There is no "you," therefore there is no free will, because you are not you, you're just the net sum of all of these interactions.

On the other hand, I think that there is a part of you that is uniquely you. Let's call it a "soul". There is this part of you that asks these philosophical questions, or is moved by a certain song, or sees something in a piece of art or writing. I don't think that these things can be taken into account in the uncountable simultaneous equations that make up a physical human.

I believe in a "soul," so that makes room for the belief of "free will."