Does Free Will actually exist? Is there a way to tell?

[Creed of Heresy]

Godschild, I have one simple question:

“Can omniscient God, who
Knows the future, find
The Omnipotence to
Change His future mind?”

[quoted from Karen Owens]

Stop deflecting the OP is about man's free will.

GC

It's not deflecting. If you lack the ability to comprehend the relevancy, that's not my problem.

Think about what it means. Give it some thought.

---

Hey guys. I know I've chosen to post this question, but how do I know if whether or not I have been preprogrammed to post this? It's not like I can go back in time to rethink my decision and choose another option. Does free will actually exist? Are all our actions just a product of time? Is there a way to actually test if whether or not we have free will? Thanks a bunch.

This is probably a stereotypical question (maybe even viewed as dumb by some), however I want to know what your thoughts are on the subject anyway.

Depends. If you believe in pre-determination, then no, free will doesn't exist.

If you believe in self-determination, then...no, free will doesn't exist.

That second one may throw you for a loop, but bear with me. We're not exactly rational creatures. We're KIND of rational, to the extent that, at least, we can rationalize. But we cannot be purely rational. We are slaves to our hormones, the glands that surround our bran and fill our body; the stuff that gives us emotion clouds our judgment and makes us act in ways that are self-contradictory, illogical, harmful... But at the same time, they also drive us to do the opposite, to act in self-confirming, reasonable, and beneficial ways. The problem is, it's never one or the other; it's always some mix of both.

What we call "self-awareness" is cluttered by our subconscious always directing what we do and how we do it, and worse, we can't really excise that subconscious. We are aware of its existence but we are unaware of its effect on us because...well, it's our subconscious. It's the rear-most part of the brain, the most primitive part of our brain, the same general region that keeps our hearts pumping. You can no more mentally will your heart to stop than you can will your mid-and-rear brain to stop sending chemical impulses to interfere with your frontal lobe's processes.

We are slaves to ourselves. Just some of us have longer chains. The shorter the chains, metaphorically-speaking, the more delusion takes hold. The longer the chains, the less we have to obey primitive function and can struggle better against delusion. If the chains are too short, you end up with self-delusion.

Good examples of the lattermost are Drich, Godschild, Professor, your average evangelical redneck, etc....

As far as the concept of free will in philosophical terms goes... Frankly, I don't care about that. I can only operate in the realm in which I perceive. I no more consider the existence of predetermination or the possibility I am a brain in a jar in a lab somewhere than I try to visualize what a world made of eleven dimensions looks like.

Cogito ergo sum. That's good enough for me.