Do we have free-will?

 Are you free? 

we often think we are free but are we really free? this question sounds so simple yet it is actually not. What does it even mean to be free? Well in this post I will explain to the best of my knowledge what is free will and whether we have it or not.

can you escape fate?

Let's consider the story below:

When Thabiso was born a prophet foretold that he would grow up to kill his father and then marry his mother. His father fearing for his life decided to leave the baby in the wilderness with the hope that he will die, thefore the prophecy will not come  true. The baby was found by another couple, and grew up knowing them as his parents. The boy heard of the prophecy, not knowing his adopted and because he loves his father(adopted) he decided to go away from his family to avoid the prophecy. In the way he met and killed a man and then felt bad for the wife of this man, he decided to marry her. The man he met is in fact his father and the wife is his mother.

This story is meant to provoke your thinking, how you view the world. Can we change our destiny? we often believe we can but just as Thabiso in the story above couldn't escape his destiny, we also can't. you can't escape it, even if you try to escape it, you will often fulfill it in your way running from it. 

Do you believe in a deity/God?

Most religions say you have free will, I will be talking about Christianity and Ancestors. We feel comfort in religion because we say There is someone in charge,  this statement itself implies that we are constrained to some level by a deity. 

Christianity

They believe in an omniscient God to some level, if God knows everything then how can you be free to do whatever you want to do when it's already known what you will do ahead of time?  "Jeremiah, I knew you'd be a prophet even before you were conceived" it was predetermined, he had no choice in all of that. "Peter you will deny me 3 times" we already know how devoted Peter was to Jesus, I mean he sliced the ear of the soldier yet he still did as it was foretold. If there was free will, Jesus wouldn't have come to earth but because he had to fulfill all the prophecies he did. I know this is an over-simplified summary of it, but the bible doesn't confirm free will at its essence.

Ancestors

I don't know much about the dynamics of this religion but your ancestors can stop your blessings should they decide you aren't doing what they like, how are you free if you have to please them anyway? I know that some of you might be like "I can choose not to listen to them" well to some extent that sounds true but it's often not as easy to do whatever you want. It gets worse if you have a calling, you will do what they want whether you want it or not, how can you fight them if they control your subconscious? They can show you visions of what will happen before time like who is coming to see you today, does the person coming have free will if your ancestors already showed you they are coming? I might not have a deep understanding of how it works but it doesn't look like you have free will.

everything else in the world is determined, why do you think you are different?

If you see a golf ball flying, you automatically know that something must've hit it. Every event had a cause in the physical world. Everything else we can determine how it came to be, given we see the thing itself. We often think we are free because we feel free, but we are actually not. You are reading this post not because you want to, you have to, even if you decide to stop, that's determined too. Your thoughts happen in the brain, we have already proved that anything physical is somehow determined, guess what? your brain is physical too, therefore your thoughts are as determined like everything else.

In conclusion

You are not free, you didn't choose where and when you were born, hence you didn't have a choice in your upbringing and life experiences that shaped the person you are right now. Everything that happened makes you what and who you are today and that in a way is determined, in short, you are not free and you never will be. Thank you for being forced to read this post 😌