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there is no way to be certain one way or the other, of course, but i think i believe that we do have free will. there is no real logical basis for that belief, simply because there can't be. it is very easy to think of seemingly intelligent arguments against it, though, i must admit. for instance, time. we assume that the past stays the same, so doesn't that kind of suggest that, in the past, people don't have free will? and since the past used to be the present, and then the future, you could extend that idea to those two aspects of time, as well. then again, we don't even know if the past doesn't change constantly, since, if it did, that change would change the future as well, so we wouldn't even notice the change. the new past would have seemed to always have been our past.
of course, there is another idea entirely that must be explored. even if all of time (past, present, and future) is fixed, does that mean that we don't have free will? just for the sake of my current train of thought, i'll assume that there is no deity that controls our actions. in that case, if there is no entity which is controlling our actions, who is there to control us except ourselves? that may be a weak argument, though, since it is just as likely that we are all just giant lumps of molecules that react in completely normal, scientific, and ultimately understandable ways. but who can say that those reactions aren't free will? after all, even the people who passionately believe in the supernaturally individual/independent nature of the human mind usually admit that they make decisions based off of what they know and experience. in other words, they react to things.
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