Free will/evil/punishment

[robvalue]

Hello, welcome

The biggest problem is defining exactly what "free will" means.

But in casual terms, if there is no free will then we make no more decisions about punishment than the criminal does about their crime. We do what we cannot avoid doing, there is no room for a real judgement or decision. It's all smoke and mirrors. It seems we generally lock people up for crimes, so that's how the dominos happen to fall.

If there is at least some degree of free will, then it makes sense that we still lock people up for crimes. So really, there's nothing to worry about on this score in my opinion.

I would say the amount of control we have, if any, is probably vastly less than what it appears. Like you say there are so many factors that go into our behaviour, many of which are entirely beyond our control. If anything, I feel more and more like I have no real control, like I am an observer to myself.

http://youtu.be/oyvbKbGCeWY