Are we really free?

Do we have free-will?

Let’s start with the simplest definition; Free-will is the ability of a person to choose between different possible courses of actions without any hindrances. It is assumed that our free will is so gratis that even God doesn’t have an influence on it.

As simple as it may seem, the concept of free-will have long been debated over the centuries by minds like Socrates and Plato. Free-will is what makes our lives meaningful on earth. Without it we would just be actors on the stage living a scripted life and directed by God. The whole purpose of living is defeated when free-will is withdrawn from us.

Whether we believe in God or not; whether or not we accept the concept of fate and destiny; we believe we were born free and we live free. We make our choices and we decide for our fate. At least that is the general conviction. Though we may agree or disagree with the concept yet we live without a doubt about the freedom with which we breathe. We walk, we ran, we eat, we sleep, we laugh, we cry…. And not once do we think that we are doing it because it is written so or that someone asked us to do so. The core of our faith in a divine creator with a benevolent fatherly figure induces our mind to believe that we are free beings from all bondages in exercising our will.

If you have been following my other articles you must be pretty familiar with the fact that our belief, hope and faith are the essence of life. Even the existence of God is buttressed by these essences alone. The incapability of human mind in comprehending the divine mystery of creation and the anonymity of root secrets of the universe is sustained by belief, hope and faith. As such, we chose to believe in what quenches our curiosity.

There are dozens of theories both for and against the existence of free-will. Some are based on such in-depth analysis that a layman could never understand its arguments. Even some learned minds would fail to empathize with those theories unless they have a relevant qualification in the fields of psychology, cosmology and allied areas.

Irrespective of the meticulous analysis and long term debates, all those theories are inconclusive and eventually end up with the last resort, “Ones’ belief”.

Actually one theory is quite interesting. Known as determinism, it claims that free-will doesn’t exist and that all of our choices are influenced by responsibility, praise, guilt, sin, advice, persuasion, deliberation etc. One of its forms also claims that fate is reality and that everything has been predetermined right from the beginning of the universe. In other words, the Big Bang explosion is continuous and one action is triggering another thus making everything predictable. However, no matter how convincing they sound, they are all inconclusive with open ends.

Therefore, the best is to reason with our self consciousness and believe our instinct. Life is one big mystery that cannot be perfectly solved. As a personal point of view, I would like to believe that there is a God who designed this mystery; that we have both free will and fate but at the same time they don’t work the way we ideally presume to.

Let us not be so serious about life, we are never getting out of it Alive!