- For there is a time and a way for everything, although man’s trouble lies heavy on him. -
You know, I get really frustrated with people who say we don’t have free will. My reaction is so immediate, I find it hard to even call it rational.
Way to destroy my own argument there.
I have listened to a lot of arguments regarding free will or our lack thereof. Many people are determined to convince all of us that we are simply beyond our own control.
Allow me to summarize the best arguments I have heard into a single point. There are so many things that predated you, that to say you have free will, is simply absurd.
What does this mean? Did you pick who your parents are? See! you had no free will over that. Did you pick the country you were born in? See!
If you want to get into the evolutionary arguments here, which many of those arguing against our free will do, you might hear things pertaining to the limitations of our species.
Did you choose to breathe air? Did you choose to not have the ability to fly? Why did you choose to have a heart that pumps your blood.
What’s the point? So many things are beyond your control, how can you even begin to pretend you have any control over them?
There is a simple rebuttal to a question like that. When I speak of free will, I mean the freedom of will creatures like ourselves possess.
A proponent of no free will may counter with, “Fair enough, but do you not know the electrical synapses fire before you voice a decision? You are just responding to a decision made by the brain!”
And then I respond with, “Yes, you have it now. It is my brain that decides. It seems the muscles in my tongue and the part of my brain (if any) that holds my decision consciously act after my decision.”
Perhaps, I have some control over what I do. Not infinite control, but that which is common to creatures such as us.
This means I can be held responsible for what I do. If so, then it makes sense to punish me for wrongdoing.
If I strike your wife, do you not hold me responsible? Why? Is it because of the pain caused? Would you hold me or a dog more responsible for hurting her?
Is it not me because you at times wish to strike others yet find it possible to control the desire?
If there is no free will, it doesn’t mean that we would be unable to act. We could respond to stimulus just like the animals.
If there is no free will, then it would mean there is no need for justice.
Our verse is truly beautiful today as it shows the meaning that can be present in our lives if we act rightly, while combining it with the trouble of man.
What is that trouble? Why it is that which makes him “man.” The negative aspect of the two that separate us from the beasts.
It is the fall; it is the knowledge of good and evil. With that knowledge came the expulsion from paradise and the full realization of our ultimate demise.
It was an act of free will in opposition to the will of God to take of the fruit.
Despite this consciousness of our pain, suffering, and eventual death, we can choose to act rightly.
How can we know what is right?
By walking in the light.
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