So, what is free will anyway?

So, what is free will anyway?

Free will is a very difficult matter. At first sight it might appear contradictory to causality and determinism; but is it really? One of my main arguments against religion I used to have back when I was an atheist, was that the human psychology works by causal processes stimulated by outside occurrences, and there is thus no such thing as free choice. It is like comparing the human mind to a computer program. It does what it is programmed to do, and thus is not free. As I reconsidered these arguments later in life however, I came to the conclusion that no proof nor indication can be found in the fields of neuro-psychology that confirms this view. Our current knowledge on the human mind is way to limited. There is definitely still more then enough room for interpreting the mind as free. Of course I grant that us humans do experience basic, instinctive impulses and desires that drive us, however, we can deny these urges by choice! Take fasting for example. Denying ones basic urges to eat for a full day. And that is what true freedom of choice means. That is why someone who choses to ignore his lusts and urges, and instead choses to follow religion acquires the greatest degree of freedom one can have. Because what you do then is ignore your causal body, and follow your spiritual soul. In other words, the choice boils down to this: be a slave of your urges, and needs, or be a slave of God.

One objection some might still have, is that religion says there is determinism, and that the future is already set. However there's a big semantical problem here that I explain in the page dedicated to time. the word "already" is nonsensical in that sentence because it is a word derived from a presentists point of view. If we include layers of time into this objection, we find that the statement becomes: "At the time₁ that I haven't made a choice yet₁ the future₁ is already₂ determined." So it isn't really "already" decided in the sense that we have no saying in it, since that already refers to secondary layer of time. It is already₂ decided because an observer outside of time₁ would see which course of action we will₁ take. That has no bearing on the causality of this time. And it certainly doesn't mean our window of opportunity to choose has passed. The reason the future is set is because our choices are know. n other words, are choices are included into the determination, so the determination does not negate us having a choice.