A conversation on TED.com: Does free will exist?

Steven Dilloway
Saint Clair, MI
United States

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Does free will exist?

Or, does nature predestine our [nurtured] outcome?

Any specific reasons why?
i.e. math, science, religion, ect.

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Brennan Hooper
- +1
Sep 27 2011: Free will is an illusion. Everything is determined by action/reaction. Every decision you make is made possible by something that has already happened.That is the only true way existence can happen the way it has. The mind likes to think its in control but the mind is often mistaken. Know Truth; free your mind. Something cant come from nothing unless everything is nothing and nothing is everything. Only that which is, exists; only truth is exists. Three principles govern all of creation: that which is, that which is not, and that which is nothing. Nothing is the empty vessel which truth fills. It is the very same principal that determines your ability to read my text. The contrast of black and white determines the text. One cannot exist without the other. People ask which came first the egg or the chicken. The only true answer is they are one in the same. Because, how can one exist without the other True or false?
Truthcontest.com
Tim blackburn 30+
- 0
Sep 27 2011: i wonder what quantum physics would say about free will...
Frans Kellner 50+
- +1
TED Translator

Sep 27 2011: Maybe nature and we are inseparable one and the same.
- Kat Haber 500+
  - +2
  TED Attendee TEDx Organizer Associate
  
  Sep 27 2011: Indigenous peoples live with this in every continent. There, for them, is no doubt that this is true. For the developed world a more interesting questions for me, is how do we reconnect with nature's wisdom to provide constant streams of feedback with such a rapid rate of change occurring on the plant?
  - Frans Kellner 50+
    
    +1
    TED Translator
    
    Sep 27 2011: Hi Kat
    One answer I know on your question is to get rid of all currency. However I can't see this happen soon.
    Another is for wisdom to be heard. This can help a little.
    That's why I thank you for your response.
  - Orlando Hawkins 20+
    
    +1
    Sep 27 2011: I agree, much of the biotic communities on the planet is affected by this notion of progress. When it comes to development and progress must people do not really raise the question of "who's interest does it serve"?
    
    I look at the situation like this: the indigenous people that live in America before the Europeans came were very much in touch with nature (as you and Frans have stated)...By the time the U.S. government was formulated, progress for America became the Westward Expansion....In doing so, the U.S. government not only arbitrary removed the natives from their land but cause much of the destruction in regards to nature...
    
    There is one native American author by the name of Luther Standing Bear said that "The white man does not feel about nature as does the Indian mind-the difference is childhood instruction".
    
    but I do have a question, how would being in touch with nature have any implications w/free-will?
Amily shaw 10+
- 0
Sep 27 2011: It depends on what you mean by free will and answers can be varied.
- Steven Dilloway
  - 0
  Sep 27 2011: What constitutes free will?
  - Amily shaw 10+
    
    0
    Sep 27 2011: freedom and choice in my understanding.
- Frans Kellner 50+
  - +1
  TED Translator
  
  Sep 27 2011: Fine question Amy.
  People can be suppressed in their freedom but also kept ignorant of the possibilities to choose from.
  Education can give a bigger scope and independency to define what they want and go after it.
  Children can be brought up within narrow views from which they can't break away.
  Further it appears to be the case that our brain has made any choice even before we become aware of it and confirm this choice by saying: 'I made a choice'.
  
  And last but not least: what would anyone wish for more than to live in peace and enjoy the beauty of life and all living. Something that can only be complete if all living beings can be in that peace and explore their full potential of inner force.
Matthieu Miossec 100+
- +3
TED Translator Associate

Sep 27 2011: You're free to follow the will that emanates from your personality, genes and inner and outer environment following the laws of physics that binds everything in the universe to logical cause and effect. Call it free will or not, everyone has their version of what free will means. Just know that your actions, like everything in the universe, obeys the laws of nature.
- Gerald O'brian 30+
  - 0
  Sep 27 2011: That's right. It serves better most of the time to explain our human actions with free will instead of atomic interaction. It brings more understanding.
  But if you think you can bend the rules of this atomic interaction, which obey the laws of physics, then you're barking mad.
  - Orlando Hawkins 20+
    
    0
    Sep 27 2011: but this in no way, shape or form is disregarding the physiological and biological implication of our actions right?
Tim blackburn 30+
- 0
Sep 26 2011: we are def free, free to leave whatever society that claims we are not.
- Frans Kellner 50+
  - 0
  TED Translator
  
  Sep 27 2011: Maybe where you live this is true yet not everywhere.
  
  Once I saw a story of slaves that lived with Bedouins in the Sahara. They lived in isolation and for generations in the same situation. When interviewed they couldn't think of something as being free.
  After explaining the man became a little frightened. He, his father, his sun, no one ever had to make a decision for themselves.
  - Tim blackburn 30+
    
    0
    Sep 27 2011: but in order for that HORRIBLE situation to occur, there had to be someone with such freedom right? or free will? so i personally conclude it does exsist, and the nature that "predestined" those men were the nature of free will at its worst.
- Orlando Hawkins 20+
  - 0
  Sep 27 2011: We can choose to leave the society that claims that we are not free...that is indeed true, but this still has no implication of free-will....there would still be something that dictates the choices that we make.
  - Tim blackburn 30+
    
    0
    Sep 27 2011: there is that......how did terence mckenna say it? an Attractor...
Isha S
- +3
Sep 26 2011: Free will as we commonly understand and use, is only another,subtle version of our ego. We take 'charge' and believe we are the doers. Doership brings with it my,me, mine,all a trap for misery. What are we saying-- 'MY' free will or My 'FREE WILL'? When the my is gone all that remains is free and willing. And your unchanging self is for ever free and exists on its own terms. Yes, free will for free can.
- Frans Kellner 50+
  - 0
  TED Translator
  
  Sep 27 2011: Applause.
Orlando Hawkins 20+
- +3
Sep 26 2011: As hard as it is to accept I would have to say no. There are too many external (I do not mean external in the sense of God) and internal influences that plays a role in our choices. We feel as though we are free but there is a reason for every act that we do. These factors include neuro-transmitters, to oxytocin, culture, psychology, etc.....

at the same time our experience are so profound and we do feel like we making decision that are of our own.

As perplexing as this may sound, this notion of free-will and determinism is more like a paradox than a question of either/or
- Mike Euverman
  - +1
  Sep 26 2011: I agree. Free will is a myth.
  
  We are always bound by the will of the society that we live in. Rightly so too, for people should not have the free will to kill anyone that they please.