View Poll Results: Do we have free will?

Voters
241. This poll is closed
  • YES - we do have free will

    120 49.79%
  • NO - we do not have free will

    84 34.85%
  • MAYBE - I don't know either way.

    37 15.35%
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  1. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Mooneye View Post
    Yes, in what way would we not?
    Science shows our subconscious makes decisions for us the same way our bone marrow makes red blood cells. In essence, anything that occurs without our conscious influence is not truly free will.

    I'm not saying that our actions are deterministic (which is a totally different question), I'm just saying that science shows us that our decisions are not totally freely consciously made.

  2. #22
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Dezerte View Post
    Opinions are formed through experiences in life, and similarly these opinions continue to be influenced from other people's opinions as well.
    Not all opinions.

    Quote Originally Posted by schwarzkopf View Post
    Science shows our subconscious makes decisions for us the same way our bone marrow makes red blood cells. In essence, anything that occurs without our conscious influence is not truly free will.

    I'm not saying that our actions are deterministic (which is a totally different question), I'm just saying that science shows us that our decisions are not totally freely consciously made.
    If I want to hold my breath, I will hold my breath. Nothing else affecting that than my will.

  3. #23
    I think we have free will but it takes a lot of self discipline and inner strength to use it. Its easier to live by our animal instincts most of the time.

  4. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by Descense View Post
    Thats so easy to test:
    Yeah - that's not a test of free will. That is a test of statistics

  5. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by Descense View Post
    Thats so easy to test:

    You need a chocolate. Place it somewhere where anyone can see it and put on a sign *dont eat me*. The next day it will be gone.
    See... free will. Not free will would have to resist the chocolate.
    That's not really free will more like instinct I guess.
    Quote Originally Posted by Boomzy
    People just want to be bullies without facing any sort of consequences or social fallout for being a bully. If you declare X as a racist/sexist/homophobic/etc. person you can say or do whatever you want to them, ignoring the fact that they are a human.

  6. #26
    Quote Originally Posted by Nihilist74 View Post
    I think we have free will but it takes a lot of self discipline and inner strength to use it.
    What one thinks is a poor guide of any science, I mean common sense tells me the earth is stationary... yet it is moving so damn fast is is mind blowing.

  7. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by schwarzkopf View Post
    Science shows our subconscious makes decisions for us the same way our bone marrow makes red blood cells. In essence, anything that occurs without our conscious influence is not truly free will.

    I'm not saying that our actions are deterministic (which is a totally different question), I'm just saying that science shows us that our decisions are not totally freely consciously made.
    So theoretically then, if you were to create a situation inwhich there was exactly a 50% chance of somebody making one decision or the other, they would freeze up like windows 95? If so test it. Otherwise this is just an edgy nihilistic hipster circle jerk.

    Also please use the search function, there's 5000 million "there is no free will lulz" threads made per year.

  8. #28
    The Unstoppable Force Mayhem's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mooneye View Post
    Not all opinions.
    what opinions are formed without experience?
    Quote Originally Posted by ash
    So, look um, I'm not a grief counselor, but if it's any consolation, I have had to kill and bury loved ones before. A bunch of times actually.
    Quote Originally Posted by PC2 View Post
    I never said I was knowledge-able and I wouldn't even care if I was the least knowledge-able person and the biggest dumb-ass out of all 7.8 billion people on the planet.

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mayhem View Post
    what opinions are formed without experience?
    That depends on the person. Take people who are against abortion, who are men. What experience do they have with it?

  10. #30
    The Unstoppable Force Mayhem's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gheld View Post
    So theoretically then, if you were to create a situation inwhich there was exactly a 50% chance of somebody making one decision or the other, they would freeze up like windows 95? If so test it. Otherwise this is just an edgy nihilistic hipster circle jerk.

    Also please use the search function, there's 5000 million "there is no free will lulz" threads made per year.
    you can´t create this situation
    Quote Originally Posted by ash
    So, look um, I'm not a grief counselor, but if it's any consolation, I have had to kill and bury loved ones before. A bunch of times actually.
    Quote Originally Posted by PC2 View Post
    I never said I was knowledge-able and I wouldn't even care if I was the least knowledge-able person and the biggest dumb-ass out of all 7.8 billion people on the planet.

  11. #31
    The Unstoppable Force Granyala's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by schwarzkopf View Post
    What one thinks is a poor guide of any science, I mean common sense tells me the earth is stationary... yet it is moving so damn fast is is mind blowing.
    Around 30 Km/s give or take. (movement not rotation)

  12. #32
    The Unstoppable Force Mayhem's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mooneye View Post
    That depends on the person.
    so you have not even one example?
    Quote Originally Posted by ash
    So, look um, I'm not a grief counselor, but if it's any consolation, I have had to kill and bury loved ones before. A bunch of times actually.
    Quote Originally Posted by PC2 View Post
    I never said I was knowledge-able and I wouldn't even care if I was the least knowledge-able person and the biggest dumb-ass out of all 7.8 billion people on the planet.

  13. #33
    Quote Originally Posted by Gheld View Post
    So theoretically then, if you were to create a situation inwhich there was exactly a 50% chance of somebody making one decision or the other,
    No - you are referring to a separate question that of "are we deterministic" ... the answer to that is almost certainly no in any practical sense.

    The test they did do was give people the choice of two options - then measure the time from when the instruments determines their answer to the time they actually consciously made the decision. That period was up to 7 seconds.

  14. #34
    Quote Originally Posted by Mooneye View Post
    Not all opinions.
    Everything you experience in life affects you. It may be insignificant amount, but the effect is there. But that is beside the point, because who we are depend on previous experiences in life and these experiences build upon each other. So if you disregard an opinion it's because you were "conditioned" to do so from the very beginning, you made the only possible choice you could have (based on your previous experiences). This is essentially compatibilism.

    Another quote

    "Man can do what he wills but he cannot will what he wills."
    Last edited by Dezerte; 2014-08-03 at 04:34 PM.
    "In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance." Paradox of tolerance

  15. #35
    Merely a Setback Sunseeker's Avatar
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    If we do, there's no way to know.

    If we don't, there's also no way to know.
    Human progress isn't measured by industry. It's measured by the value you place on a life.

    Just, be kind.

  16. #36
    Deleted
    Quote Originally Posted by Mayhem View Post
    so you have not even one example?
    I provided one. Abortion being one, especially among those who have never had to experience a pregnancy or abortion, even more so among those who can't, like men. Yet they have opinions about it.

  17. #37
    No.

    My brain tells me what to do or say, based on personal opinions and a corrupted sense of morality given to me by media and society.

  18. #38
    The Insane Underverse's Avatar
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    I think free will has to be defined first. There's basic determinism, which states that everything's a reaction to an initial impulse at the beginning of the universe (by newton's laws). Then there is the accounting for any quantum uncertainty, which is basically carried out under the assumption that biological systems do not rely on quantum uncertainty (if we can even call it that; as in, even if there was a quantum mechanism for free will, we wouldn't be able to use it because biochemical systems depend on certainty). Finally there's the idea that we will never make a choice that we think is inferior to another choice, which basically restricts degrees of freedom to one, even if we may not know the choice that we will make before it is made.

    So no, free will does not exist, on many different levels. But that doesn't mean we can't be content with its illusion.

  19. #39
    Quote Originally Posted by Dezerte View Post
    So if you disregard an opinion it's because you were "conditioned" to do so from the very beginning, you made the only possible choice you could have (based on your previous experiences).
    The really simple experiment they did in the audience was ask a guy to think of ANY city in the world except the one they were in.
    The speaker then did the same.

    The speaker thought of 'Cairo', the audience member hadn't even considered Cairo as one of the alternatives, as a matter of fact - most people consciously pick from well under 10 possibilities.

    In essence this means the audience member was NOT free to choose Cairo as the answer to the question, as his subconscious had not provided it as an option.

  20. #40
    The Unstoppable Force Granyala's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mooneye View Post
    I provided one. Abortion being one, especially among those who have never had to experience a pregnancy or abortion, even more so among those who can't, like men. Yet they have opinions about it.
    Terribly Wrong.
    I am a man. I have witnessed and read about the psychological implications and aftereffects of an abortion and because of that I have a negative opinion about them.
    Based on that experience I recommend any woman against going through one.

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