Implications of not having free will

[Mudhammam]

I can't choose to stop smoking or to smoke more because it was all decided 14 billion years ago when a quantum fluctuation caused a bubble of space time to start expanding. We're essentially just along for a ride and powerless to change the route we're taking, and I find that odd to say the least.

I might disagree, if only because I think the language here is a bit equivocal. *You* can *choose* to quite smoking, because you understand the pros and cons, and perhaps you feel compelled to quit, and you possess reasons that carry more force than immediate urges. Sure, you're not in absolute control of the results, because there are endless mitigating factors that you may not react to in a way that you'll find pleasing in retrospect, but just knowing this can be the empowering influence that tips the scales in favour of your ideal. I guess that's my problem with the language "I cannot choose." That in of itself can be debilitating, and render your "will," that is, your conscious desire, weakened.

And to say the future is predetermined can have the same effect. I rather like to think it's blind necessity that drives me on.