Can we ever really have free will if we didn't choose to exist? Because, regardless of what caused it, we didn't choose to exist. It just happened.
Do you always answer your own questions? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Did you choose to be born? I didn’t. But everything afterwards from that date can be considered free will, assuming there is no Super Natural being giving you “Destiny”.
What did you "choose"? Did you 'choose' for your ears to like the sound of a specific type of music? Did you choose for your tastebuds to like a specific taste? Do you have any say in the matter when you are humming some tune that you don't even like? Do you have a say against your brain when you can't sleep because that brain of yours wont shuttup even though you are begging it to do so? Can you convince your brain of anything? Can you sit down right now and convince your brain to believe that leprechauns exist? I'll give you a gajillion dollars if you can. What do you have free will of? Take into account that when you pick the blue pen instead of the pink pen, it is not choice but rather that your brain prefers blue, (example). The notion of "free will" is vastly overrated, and those that do advocate it have no choice in the matter.
The “free-will” you are referring to is not the same “free-will” that I was referring too. Genetics, upbringing and surroundings largely determine the brains hardwiring. Many decisions we make, we are simple unaware of preconditions in are brain, as well as are core beliefs are influenced by the environment around us. Given the right “upbringing” and “surroundings”, everyone is a possible Hitler. But even “Hitler” had decisions, albeit, still being pulled by surroundings and lust. Example: A man feels the urge to cheat on his wife, the chemicals in his body are telling him to “do it”, but his love for his wife tells him to “leave”. The chemicals may be so overwhelming that is most cases, he gives in, but not every case, despite the overwhelming chemicals, it is still his decision, he can choose to think about it logically, and make a rational decision.
I guess you never read up on Existentialism. The European Existentialists decided that question by effectively committing mass suicide. All the great European Existentialists were more or less shamed by their Philosophy into committing suicide in order to do the ONLY thing that could really assert their Free Will.... which was to choose to take themselves out of play.
i have free will because i can choose what to think, feel and believe. for example, i can choose believe in christianity or atheism. but i choose not to believe in them Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! sometimes it can be rational to be controlled by feelings. if it feels better.
All I'm saying is, if you choose to believe in a God is seems like we're not free because someone forced us into existence. God basically said, "I'm creating you weather you want to exist or not." And now, even if we didn't want to exist in the first place we are still held accountable to our service to that God. With atheism, we didn't choose to exist either. We we're "forced" into existence by someone else. And mass suicides don't work when you die and find yourself in hell for eternity (if hell exists) or if you find you have transformed into a frog or something (Hinduism). You wonder if God had a choice to exist. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
it's impossible that someone could choose to exist because in order to choose you must already exist. i've sometimes wanted to not exist, but now i know that nonexistence is an oxymoron. there is no nonexistence.
What if God existed forever though? Then he wouldn't have had that choice. I guess that depends on the whole time-space argument or what time is.
