Whether we have free will or not depends on our perspective. But first, let’s see what do we mean by having free will!
Having free will basically means being autonomous. The ability to make our own choices. To be able to make decision about our own lives. Not doing something forcefully but willingly.
But can we at all be in charge of our lives? How can we have free will while the circumstances surrounding us are never under our control?
You see, the whole process of decision making is a bit of hit and miss. Most often than not, we make our decisions based on a very limited amount of information. Finding employment for instance, you may come across a listing and after carefully considering the job description, you decide to apply for it. But how did the vacancy appear to you in first place? And who decided about the specific time of the event? Was it just a coincidence or someone or something decides about all this?
Looking at it from this perspective, it seems that we can never have free will. The variations surrounding a decision are infinite. Our mind or our conscious attention could never handle infinite number of variations. When you decide to buy a house for example, could you possibly know which houses would be available at that specific moment when you’ve decided to purchase one? Or whether your neighbours are going to treat you well and so many other queries which we may have while making such decisions? Certainly not. We perfectly understand that not everything is in our control. Yet somehow, we often manage to make the right decision.
But why being able to make our own decisions and having free will is so important to us?
The reason is because we want to be in control. Having control means having power. It satisfies our hunger to feel safe, to know what’s going to happen to us and to be able to grow. In contrast, as human beings, we are creatures of habit. We tend to resist change. Mainly because uncertainty and not knowing makes us uncomfortable. After all, it goes against our survival instincts.
But how can we grow, if we are always doing the same thing? And as creatures of habit, why do we need free will if we are not going to use it? That’s where things get a bit more complicated. From one side the hunger to grow and from other, the fear and the uncertainties of tomorrow. How can these two co-exist?
Well, although they may look to be contradictory at first, they are actually the two poles of the same process. Just because we are creatures of habit doesn’t mean we are not adventurous. It should be clear that the urge to grow, means going into the unknown and exploring the uncharted waters. So in other words, in order for us to be able to expand, we need uncertainty. We need situations which we haven’t encountered before. So as you can see, one implies the other and are part of the same process.
However, doesn’t an uncertain future automatically imply the lack of free will?
No, not necessarily. We only lack free will if we ignore the subconscious part of ourselves. What do I mean by that?
You see, with having intellectual capabilities comes an illusion. Our mind is a brilliant piece of kit but it also creates the illusion that as human beings we are only an ego and nothing else. An individual entity in the middle of a vast hostile universe. And that’s the reason we may believe that free will does not really exist. That’s not true though.
What we call universe is our own subconscious!
How can an intelligent creature come out of a dumb universe? If human beings are intelligent, then the process which has led to our existence need to be an intelligent one too. We are part of this universe. As a matter of the fact, we are the universe. We are the nature which we exist within. Same energy that has created this nature, has created us too. It’s all one process. Can an apple exist without the apple tree? Certainly not.
Thus, although our mind creates an illusion of independence or separateness, we are one with our subconscious. In other words, what happens to us or what we may refer to as the outside circumstances is the result of our own doing. But it is all happening subconsciously, we simply don’t understand how.
Just look at your own body for instance, a collection of 30 trillion cells creating an immensely complex organism. We may not quite understand how our brain works but that doesn’t make it a separate entity.
So when we are making decisions, we are mainly acting subconsciously and that’s how we manage to process such vast number of variations and information.
