To What Extent Does Free Will Exist?

Originally posted by JS357
I don't think Schopenhauer spent much time on the gentle stimulation of varying opinions.

Agree. Description was of the thread originator's possible purpose in using it to get the conversation started.

The post that was quoted here has been removed

But no one denies that the woman still has free will. Her will was to resist. He overcame this by force.

Most would simply understand that the man is a liar.

Originally posted by JS357
Posting the OP in the Spirituality forum was a choice freely made, which has consequences. 🙂

Precisely.

Originally posted by JS357
I meant choose a bullet in your or your loved one's head.

But the principle is the same. Of what is our will free, if we choose God over not-God or vice versa?

Many a person did what they thought was right no matter how many guns
were pointed at them or their family members. Will if it is free will still do
what it wants in the face of when the rewards are good and the penalties
are bad. I find my will is tested more when short term rewards for bad
choices are in front of me than when threats are trying to get me to do
something I'd not want to do.

The point of this thread if I understand it is that will we make free choices
because we want to, or are our lives more like people in a book simply
doing what was written for us to by someone else.

I believe we have free will, if not there isn't a good or evil, which I believe
there is. Reason for that thought is that I do believe we should be doing
the caring loving things that are possible for us verses selfish hateful ones.
Kelly

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Note: He would reply were he allowed to...

The post that was quoted here has been removed

Methinks one’s feelings, thoughts and actions are triggered by one’s Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions. Whenever one treats SDIC according to the evaluation of one’s mind, the resulting causal field is free will dependent and, during its lifetime evolution, it mimics a random process that lacks of predictability or computability in an appropriate sense. I think this is the reason why each person has radically divergent future developments within a finite timespan although the human beings have almost identical initial states.

So I believe, for one, that the main characteristic of free will is indeed our personal and collective SDIC; and, for two, that every decision we make is the result of the evaluation of the mind as regards both the way we conceive and decipher the given conditions, and the way we want to set up the conditions we want to create
😵

Do I have the free will?

If it feels like I have a free will, then I also have a free will.

Proof: I write these words of my free will. If you see them then I really have the free will, else I don't.
Question? Do you see these words? Your answer shows that the proof is correct.

Originally posted by FabianFnas
Do I have the free will?

If it feels like I have a free will, then I also have a free will.

Proof: I write these words of my free will. If you see them then I really have the free will, else I don't.
Question? Do you see these words? Your answer shows that the proof is correct.

Methinks it doesn't matter how it feels;

Under any circumstances we merely evaluate consciously and/ or subconsciously, and also instinctively, the whole structural interconnection of the causes and the conditions before the activation of our decision making system. All our knowledge, our desires and the products of all of our personal and collective intellectual efforts are a hard struggle to see, understand and decode the connections of the hierarchies, and we do it by means of making decisions.
It follows that if, for example, the gay person of the OP has to choose under the conditions described therein, he will choose anyway according to the evaluation of his mind alone and thus according to his free will. This is the reason why the outcome of his decision is highly unpredictable, for indeed it ‘s a product of his understanding as regards a plexus of hierarchies
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Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
"Could it be simplified even more so a redneck moron like me could understand?" Ron, you exercised your volitional free
will by deciding to post this reply requesting help; you could have decided to ignore the thread, which would have been a negative rather than a positive free will decision. Free will coexists with God's Sovereignty in human history. -Bob

RJHinds called himself a redneck moron. This is partly because of the place of birth of Our Lovable Dummy. He had no choice in that, hence part of the decision making process that led O.L.D. to calling himself redneck moron he had no control over.

Originally posted by Great King Rat
RJHinds called himself a redneck moron. This is partly because of the place of birth of Our Lovable Dummy. He had no choice in that, hence part of the decision making process that led O.L.D. to calling himself redneck moron he had no control over.

If RJH chooses to call himself a redneck moron, of his own free will (noone is forcing him, are we?), then it is because he wants us, of his own free will (noone is forcing him, are we?), to consider him as a redneck moron.

Do you think the only way in which Person X's free will can be broken is if someone else "forces" Person X to say or do something?

Originally posted by black beetle
Methinks it doesn't matter how it feels;

Under any circumstances we merely evaluate consciously and/ or subconsciously, and also instinctively, the whole structural interconnection of the causes and the conditions before the activation of our decision making system. All our knowledge, our desires and the products of all of our personal and collective ...[text shortened]... dictable, for indeed it ‘s a product of his understanding as regards a plexus of hierarchies
😵

In your sentence, "It follows that if, for example, the gay person of the OP has to choose under the conditions described therein, he will choose anyway according to the evaluation of his mind alone and thus according to his free will," what is the function of the word "free" that is not served by saying instead, "It follows that if, for example, the gay person of the OP has to choose under the conditions described therein, he will choose anyway according to the evaluation of his mind alone and thus according to his will"?

I still seek to find what free will is free of. Maybe "free will" is not best interpreted as a noun with a descriptive adjective that distinguishes freely willing in some way from other sorts of willing.

Is there such a thing as willing that is not free? I think the discussion has left its boots off from the start.