Free will and you.

[Ryantology]

Even if I do have some ability to independently influence the course of events, that ability to do so is limited to a tremendous degree by factors I cannot possibly have any influence over.

In that sense, there is no 'free will'. At best, there is 'freedom to choose from a very limited number of options within a great many constraints'. Maybe.



You don't have free will to do anything other than select one of the three options provided you here.

Free will says nothing about whether you have limited vs unlimited will.
It only asserts that you have **a** freedom.  How big/small is the margin is another issue.

The opposite of free will is determinism. It says that everything you do is based on movement of molecules that can be recorded and predicated mathematically. i.e. you are *only* a big fat equation, so I can "plot" everything that you are going to do until infinity.

Yeah. In that sense, 'free' is a meaningless modifier. The very concept of will, as I understand it, relies on the assumption that there is some capacity to exercise some degree of influence on a deterministic universe which is not recognizably dependent on said deterministic forces. There is either will, or we're just parts of the machine.

The problem in these kinds of discussions is that the word 'free' is used by theists (and quite a few atheists, to be honest) to suggest that 100% of the responsibility for a person's actions rest upon that person, and that none of it rests with God (who would actually have free will).