Do you believe in "Fate"?

[Edwardo Piet]

Don't you have to define something before you can say whether you believe in it or not?

Will = the power to will or...willpower. So free will= free willpower. Is our willpower free or is it controlled by the natural laws of the universe (whether deterministic or indeterministic)? I don't see why we would be exempt.

I find it rather amusing that 'free will' is often asked to be defined whenever it is questioned, and yet at the same time the same people will use 'free will' in order to justify someone 'deserving' something in every day life all the time. It's not at all unusual for me to hear someone say unquestioningly when judging someone's actions "Well, they had the free will not to do X just like everybody else didn't they?", assuming free will's existence. People will believe in free will and then when questioned suddenly forget what they mean by it. I think it is because their belief is baseless because free will makes no sense anyway.

And, to put it another way, and importantly: I think it's rather funny that the belief that is so close to most of us, the belief in our own freedom of will/choice, is so little understood. It's almost though most people just automatically believe in it unthinkingly on nothing but an assumption? If they actually question what they really mean by it, it's impossible, defies logic, magical, and it makes no sense - I hope they would realize. It's a fiction that's used to justify feelings of contempt and resentment to make ourselves feel superior, or to justify our own pride as if we really 'deserve' our accomplishments that really came about due to reasons beyond our own will + our will but which is itself, unfree.

EDIT: Oops wrong thread. *sighs*