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Do you believe in Free Will?
If you do tell me what makes you believe it. What are examples? show me a distribution where the bell curve is squared conclusively. Is it possible to not have volition yet lead a life as if you had? Are you happy even if you don't have free will?

@normsmusic Similarly, do our dogs love us of their own volition or are they forced to because of millennia of breeding? Does the answer to that question make a dogs happiness invalid? What about a mother's love for her newborn. Doesn't strike me a great act of Free Will but seems very powerful regardless.

@ToeLowq @normsmusic We give them food and water. Therefore, they love us.

@normsmusic I do but I can't explain it to you. I can however offer this:

If humans don't have free will and everything is deterministic then why is anyone punished for anything they've ever done or not done? Anyone who doesn't believe in free will should be in favor of opening up the mental hospitals and prisons and releasing everyone because nobody is responsible for their actions.

I believe that the rule of law requires belief in free will.

@danielbsmith another possibility is if we don't have free will that this is how this subroutine plays out. When did free will start? with Denovisians 380,000 yrs ago, Neanderthals, Sapiens or some other branch.?

@normsmusic I personally reject the idea that we are descended from any of the hominids. I think the hominids were creatures that lived on the earth and went extinct. They served a role in preparing the land animals and birds for the coming of humanity because we are often very destructive to natural environments. So the origin of free will for me comes from God.

@normsmusic Honestly, I don't know. Last year, I did. Currently, I've had stuff happen that makes me question it. It's one of those things that i can't let myself think about for too long.

@heyyou Thanks, I don't know either but I love thinking about it, like pondering the stars and that is enough.

@normsmusic
Usually I’d ask for a definition of free will, but if you’re referring to the common understanding, no, I don’t.
When we consider all the millions of factors that preceded and contributed to every decision we have ever made, I wouldn’t call that free will.
Scientists have even discovered that before we do something as simple as flex a muscle our brains have set that action in motion.

@gemswinc @Jeber thanks for your thoughts. In my wine-soaked debates of my youth, the Heisenberg Principle of Uncertainty allowed 4 to 5% free will from a deterministic universe, now proved false.

@normsmusic @gemswinc
I don’t understand it all, but quantum physics fascinates me. I’m becoming convinced that everything we perceive as reality is just a small percentage of what’s really there.

@Jeber @normsmusic Absolutely.. Quantum Physics also fascinates me..

@Jeber @gemswinc here is something to think about, the atoms of your body are proportional as distant from each other as the stars in the universe.

@normsmusic Do you have a link about how it was disproven? Couldn't find one... 4-5% sounds about right 😉

@gemswinc
Common Interpretation of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle Is Proved False
A new experiment shows that measuring a quantum system does not necessarily introduce uncertainty

scientificamerican.com/article

@normsmusic I have a super deterministic view of reality. That means not only that we don’t have free will, but also that there is no randomness. Everything is predetermined. This view has absolutely no effect on my happiness because my primate brain evolved to believe that it has free will. It’s the only way I can see the world. The one thing it does do is give me comfort when I don’t understand the reason for something bc there isn’t one. It’s just the way the quarks bounced.

@Gambit_1 What a great post. A lesson on living with ambiguity and embracing the paradoxes of life. Bravo

@Gambit_1 @normsmusic

ohhhh... so that's why the republicans have the HOUSE majority, it took 15 rounds for mccarthy to buy enough votes to be speaker, jim jordan, traitor, will be chairman of the judiciary & MTG swears she's a normal wacko far rightest -but not Q anymore- & talks to trump multiple times a day.

DAMN THOSE BOUNCING QUARKS!

@normsmusic What did Will do and why are we trying to find clemency for him?

@normsmusic If there is no free will, then there is either a deity imposing their will and plan or we are sort of robots, programmed through evolution and our DNA to do a set of survival behaviors.Does free will help us survive as a species? Could we have evolved a free will? If there is no free will, then is there no good or bad decision/behavior? Just life & living and being in accordance with our biology like a deer? Do animals have free will, or are they a solely stimulus/response beings?

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