“The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”
Proverbs 16:9
“If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.”
John 7:17
Free will is a strange concept, and something people argue over constantly. The arguments over the existence of free will likely span from a lack of precisely defined terms. People who believe in free will and others who do not are usually arguing over two different definitions of free will. Free will is not black and white, there is a large volume of gray area between these two extremes. That gray area is where the reality of free will lies.
The question isn’t, “Is there such a thing as free will?” The proper question is, “How much free will do I possess at any given time.
Binary extremes free will do not exist except in psychopaths. Most people fall into the gray area of making their own decisions while simultaneously being influenced by outside variables. For example, when deciding whether or not to steal, man first decides whether he wants to steal the item or not. Then, however, the thought of punishment for stealing enters his mind and affects his decision. The man who would have stolen has now changed his mind because of an outside variable like punishment. Or this man thinks about the reward of stealing, in this case it would be the new item he would “own”. Free will influenced by outside variables is in the gray zone.
We do not decide to do things based solely on our free will, but also based on the outside variables like punishment and reward. Some people might say that this man is using his free will to reason out consequences, and perhaps that is a valid argument. By using free will this man determined that the risk of punishment for an action was not worth the possible reward. However, we must be careful not to confuse rationality with free will. Even though the man wanted to steal, he was stopped by his rational thinking.
What man does is never what he truly wants to do, he makes decisions based on the reward and punishment circuitry in his mind.
People in the religious world try to say that we make decisions of our own free will, that we choose to do what is right based on our free will alone. Well if most Christians are merely running from the potential of extreme punishment of all time and doing good even though they would rather be doing evil, are they really using free will? Or are they behaving the way humans should behave, by making decisions that best benefit them and their survival at that moment in time? Most religious people do what is right to avoid punishment, not because they desire to do what is right.
This is the state of free will: Yes, we do make decisions in our own rational minds, but they are heavily influenced by outside circumstances such as how we are raised, our level of emotional morality, but more powerfully by the punishment or reward that comes based on our action.
We act out of nothing other than self interest; Every action is rooted in it, and it is not sinful to be self-interested.
Thinkers like Sam Harris argue that because we can detect some form of brain activity mere milliseconds before we make a conscious choice that this somehow proves that free will does not exist. That does not seem like enough evidence to prove that free will does not exist. Sam Harris also falls into the realm of extreme black and white views on free will. He absolutely believes that free will does not exist in any form. We believe that it does exist, but that it can be heavily influenced by external variables.
Mantra
I am making the best decisions for myself.
Application
Be constantly aware of the variables and environmental factors that influence your decision making process. We have some level of free will to draw upon. How much free will we have seems to be based somewhat on personality. Some people are complete rule followers. They follow rules even though we don’t want to, but because they will be punished if they do not. We have to eliminate this type of thinking. The decisions we make should be completely our own, as much as is possible. We do not want to take action merely because of consequences, we want to take action for the sake of taking action. This is the nearly impossible ideal to work towards. However, we should still aim to make good decisions for intrinsic reasons as much as we can.
- Identify your desires and temptations. (You want to go to college)
- Look at the results that draw you to action. (There are promiscuous women at college/there is potential to make money)
- Contemplate how you are affected by these variables. Realize you are being drawn initially to the result of an action. Then those desires are moderated by your rational thinking. Therefore, use rational thinking as quickly as possible to short-circuit your unwise desires.
Master yourself. Do what is right. Be a Man.
Conduct Yourselves Like Men.
