Freewill vs Determinism(It's just a discussion and not a conclusion)

DETERMINISM

"Determinism" is the idea that all events are predetermined by existing causes. Everything that will happen could be explained through the clockwork laws of cause and effect. It doesn’t mean that we are completely powerless and are at the mercy of what’s about to come but it simply gives a different way of looking at things that happen around us.

In the 1980’s Benjamin Libet a physiologist used an EEG and electroencephalogram to show that you can read and tell that somebody is about to move, 300 milliseconds before they decide in their conscious mind to move. This means before we decide to move our bodies, it’s already been decided for us in our subconscious and we only think we made that decision for ourselves after its already been made. So in reality a discussion is, that consciously making a decision that we call "free will" is an illusion.

Charles Darwin in the "Theory Of Evolution" brought a theory that, if species do indeed evolve, things like intelligence must be hereditary. Intelligence is a trait that helps us make better decisions and while you can study hard to know more than the average person, for the most part, how intelligent you are is not completely up to you. So certain people cannot make certain intelligent choices, not because they don’t want to, but because their genes are limited. In that instance, would you say the person has the freedom to make those intelligent choices? In reality, they do not. Their fates are predetermined by their genes. When you critically examine the concept of free will, the whole idea seems to crumble pretty quickly. Researchers have come to a discussion that believing in free will is like believing in religion, neither of them agrees with the laws of physics.

Desire much like choice comes from the subconscious. So a conscious effort to shape your subconscious is a subconscious effort to change your subconscious.

Newtonian determinism says The Universe is a clock rounded up at the beginning of time and ticking according to the laws of motion. So what you going to eat 10 years from now has already been fixed. Then comes Einstein who also believes in the Newtonian explanation and says that a murderer also follows the principle of determinism but should be placed in jail. Then comes Heisenberg who states that God plays dice with the Universe and Einstein is proven wrong.



Then what is the understanding of free will?
We understand that we have some kind of free will, no one can determine your future events given your history, and there’s always a possibility of uncertainty in whatever we do

Discussion1- "Action Being An Event In time"

There’s a saying, Every action is an event in time, and every event in time is due to a cause, a cause has an interwoven effect which is 2 sides of a coin, its like the cause already exists before the action took place

It’s like some cause leads to that action. (So in this concept there is no free will but determinism or destiny).

Discussion 2 - "It's About Religion".

It’s about god omniscience, God knows about the present past and future which means before you take an action god already knows what action you will take, this dissolves the fact that you are free to take action.

Freedom means you will take action but, you don’t know what you will take

it could be either yes or no and left or right that’s the essence of free will. If you already know what’s going to happen then that’s not free.

Discussion 3 - “Law of Karma”

Our past actions give rise to present conditions, whatever is happening to you at present is due to the sum of actions of the past

Sum of Past=Present: Sum of Present=Future

So you can’t say here free will exists because whatever decisions you take will be based on past knowledge, mindset, or actions.

Through the Law of Karma, there is no free will.

Discussion 4 - "Logical Memento"

If I say Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister of India then that’s true it can’t be false, or if something is false then it cannot be true.

So a statement about the future?

Whether it’s true or false?

If human civilisation will go to mars by 2050?

Then the statement either becomes true or the statement is false.

Examples of signal spikes in brain activity before the person decides to do, or speak something. Your Subconscious mind translates to the conscious mind.

According to Bhagwad Geeta: "Through Prakriti, we take action"
We are in an illusion that we are the doer.
Ego attached to body and mind feels oneself as the doer, if we are at with wisdom then we feel as part of the universe.

FREEWILL

The soul idea that we are the makers of our destiny is called free will. We have the power of free choice.

Discussion1- "Morality"

We all understand the difference between being compelled and allowed to be on our own, when we are on our own we are subject to have a feeling of free will. Just take the example of Adolf Hitler who was violent and Mahatma Gandhi who believed in non-violence, now if it’s determinism then it was always written that Adolf Hitler could not help himself to be violent and Mahatma Gandhi could not help himself to be non-violent. Now no punishment could be given to Hitler in the case of determinism as it is already written but punishment could be given in the case of free will as he committed that mistake.

Discussion 2 - "Freedom And Will Being Contradictory"

It’s a contradiction in terms. There is freedom and there is will. The will is a chain of mental events, it is within the causation. From freedom, we come, and in bondage it becomes will, and from bondage, we go to freedom again. So it’s not free will it’s freedom. In enlightenment or beyond the mind there is no will, there is only freedom.

What do you think, whether we are governed by free will, determinism, or both simultaneously in sync with each other?