[esiuol]

Hello,

Recently I've been struggling with questions about free will. Someone started talking about how we don't actually have free will etc which made me anxious and then I looked up a bunch of theories about it which I KNOW I shouldn't have done, but did anyway. I started freaking out about how we are who we are only because of our experiences, how if I was born somewhere else or to some other person, I would be a completely different person. I don't know why this is freaking me out so much. Does free will exist? Are we only a product of our upbringings and experiences? Agh.

 

[Tom1992]

Free will does indeed exist. You chose to post here,right?

 

[ThoughtOnFire]

Wouldn't it be extremely and overly extra ridiculous for reality to make humans through predetermined causality to "apparently have" conversations about whether or not free will exists?

 

[Grindelwald]

Evolution does not make sense in a deterministic universe.

 

[esiuol]

The worst thing I'm struggling with and can't get past is the thought that we only like the things we like and make there decisions we make because of our past and our experiences. Of course I believe we can make any decision we want and nothing is set in stone, but why do we like the people we like? Why do we like the movies we like? The food we like? Etc. It's like put anyone else in my position, in my life, have them grow up the exact same way I did, and they would be be same as me and like the things I like.

 

[forestx5]

Nature and nurture. You are a human descended from a long line of humans through selective (or not) breeding. Certain behaviors are predetermined. You will need to put food in your mouth. You will need to use the toilet. You may find it helpful to form bonds with others in your quest to survive. Whatever free will you have will

depend on how succesful you are at meeting the obligations of survival. If you have time left over, you might develope some individual behaviors that will be limited by your physical and mental capacities as a human.

 

[esiuol]

Nothing helps. I feel like I'm only the way I am because of conditioning, because of he way I grew up and my experiences, therefore my choices aren't my own, just a product of my experiences .