(no subject)

[novapsyche]

Can someone convince me that free will isn't an illusion?

Comments

[metaphorge.livejournal.com]

No.

[vaxjedi]

I could, but it'd your decision to believe would just be an illusion.

[gbdances.livejournal.com]

Do you really want to be convinced?

I think probably not. After all, the concepts of free will and interdependency, which are the polar extremes of spiritual belief, are as much like oil and water as capitalism and democracy.

[badsede.livejournal.com]

Yes, but I don't want to. ;)

an illusiory coin with two sides:

[liquidgrey.livejournal.com]

It is an illusion, but no more of an illusion than the thought itself, or the mind that thinks it.
It's all an illusion, but what we choose to believe becomes true because we live the belief.
It's an illusion, sure, but a very meaningful and powerful one. It adds the complexity of spiritual individuation into the mix of the existential manifold. Ine end though, we all do what we do, and time is just another illusion in this realm of lived illusions - so whether we have free will or not is pretty much irrelevant, because "free will" isn't life - it's just a concept, and we live and act regardless of such inquiries.

[kali-ma.livejournal.com]

It is not my will to do so. Or perhaps I was destined to say that? :P
(Sorry, couldn't resist! So, I guess my answer is "no".)

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see that too. I've read some disturbing things in the neurological literature, but nothing that would demonstrate why or how such an illusion could develop and persist in a universe where it is not possible.

[xiombarg.livejournal.com]

Define "free will" first.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Man, you guys are a tough bunch!

Let me first say that I want to believe in free will. It's just that, the more I travel down my spiritual road, the more I feel that it is a useful illusion, one that helps us navigate the natural world, but an illusion nonetheless.

However, I am not a fatalist! I sincerely believe that our choices mean something, if not in the whole scheme of cause and effect, then at least to the Godhead, who values our maturation as human beings.

So, I guess I'm just trying to figure all of these things out. (I hate not knowing where I stand.)

[myelectricsheep.livejournal.com]

Well, I would say, even the existence of a separate self is questionable, in which case, the question of free well is questionable. :-P

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

I can, but I don't want to, so I won't.

NO!

[zenrabbit.livejournal.com]

Free will IS an illusion, silly girl!

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

A self separate from what?

If the self is an illusion, is free will the illusion of an illusion?

[myelectricsheep.livejournal.com]

Yeah my take on it (well, my take on it changes, but at the moment I wrote that my take on it) was that, free will can at times seem solidly true, and can at times seem solidly false, but these seeming solidities might be no more solid in fact than the seeming separateness between myself and the rest of existence. Because the question of free will depends on me having a will as a separate being, when my separate being-hood is called into question, it becomes questionable what the question of free will addresses. Something like that anyway! Heh.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I grok that. What is the use of free will when one is the same as the ground of being?

In a private entry, I entreated myself to have God's will be my will. But that supposes duality as well.