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This was always an interesting question for me. On one hand, it's easy to say yes, you're responsible for all the choices you've ever made. Unless you happened to be in bondage, captivity, or even military service.
On another hand, the minds and body dictate a lot of things unconsciously that greatly influence our behavior. Furthermore we have gene-environment interactions where people with certain genes will act a certain way in a certain environments and situation. How much do your genes and the environment play a role in the choices you make anyway?
Humans are basically computer programs that absorb information like a sponge and act based on past experiences, habits, and learning. Sure humans can teach themselves to be critical thinkers or teach themselves to have the discipline to change bad habits but for the most part most people skirt through life taking the path of least resistance.
Once you realize this it's easier to forgive people for their flaws I find. People in society place so much emphasis on personality but personality and ego are actually quite an impersonal aspect of consciousness because of the way the brain is wired as a stimulus response machine.
The more information we have access too, the more free and the better society we'll have. Always watch for people who would curtail your right to have access to certain information or beliefs.. these people are the seeds that will destroy a society. Statists like collectivism. We have a checks and balances sort of government to try to prevent collectivism because collectivists when they get too much power tend to kill their opposition and have no tolerance for opposing beliefs or freedom. Look at the modern fringe left, for example. They claim to be the haven of moral superiority and tolerance but are anything but when you analyze their behavior. Just one example of many... I use the left because some of these fringe elements are actually getting national media attention and getting into positions of some power but the same could be said for the fringe right elements. Parents need to make sure to install values of FREEDOM in their kids and encourage knowledge seeking and self improvement. This is how you improve a society. Teach people to question everything, but be accepting towards opposing views... we don't want to degrade into a dictatorship where we're forced into certain value systems with guns pointed at our heads if we don't comply...
This was always an interesting question for me. On one hand, it's easy to say yes, you're responsible for all the choices you've ever made. Unless you happened to be in bondage, captivity, or even military service.
On another hand, the minds and body dictate a lot of things unconsciously that greatly influence our behavior. Furthermore we have gene-environment interactions where people with certain genes will act a certain way in a certain environments and situation. How much do your genes and the environment play a role in the choices you make anyway?
I have free will.
If someone argues their shortcomings they will make it true but only for themselves.
Its really just a result of worldviews, atheists are most likely to deny free will exists.
They are correct, they do not have free will..
Because their own mind denies it.
Closer philosophical inspection reveals a lack of internal consistency in their worldview.
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Short Answer: Most of us have partial free will. Even then, some have more free will than others.
That's why I'm not a professional or Olympic athlete. Some people simply have more in-born talent at certain tasks than others. The same goes for motivating one's self or overcoming fear. Same again for brushing stuff off.
And this is before we get to whether we have the know-how and experience to perform (or not) the task or think the thought in the first place. Even in this internet age, the sites we choose to read, post on, etc. tend to reflect our basic upbringing (whether family, the day to day community, the media choices, online choices, etc.).
It gets more complex when it comes to our brain's original architecture, thought patterns, etc. All of these factors are a set of positive and negative feedback loops. Even those commonly said to be within our control still take massive reprogramming - even assuming the new thoughts are correct ones to have. You have to go all the way down the if-then chain to the core of it all. The first link in that chain is usually extremely difficult, if not impossible to overcome, although it may be somewhat easier to switch up the links/path of the chain -- again with great difficulty.
All of this makes the old Nike "Just do it!" slogan an extremely simplistic view of how much we can do.
I believe we have free will...to a point. I do think there may be some things that we will always be limited by, in various ways...physical, emotional, historic. It could be that this is a self-limiting belief but it IS something I believe...so for me, for all practical purposes it's true.
As a person studying personal development I'm fully aware of my flaws and what I need to do to reprogram my habits, but my discipline levels are low and I tend to ignore what needs to be done in favor of short term gratification. It's a bit obnoxious. Most people have this where they get stuck in a grove of a habit and the habit repeats over and over.. you know that saying that got popularized by the video game "far cry 3" about doing the same things over and over and expecting different results....
As a person studying personal development I'm fully aware of my flaws and what I need to do to reprogram my habits, but my discipline levels are low and I tend to ignore what needs to be done in favor of short term gratification. It's a bit obnoxious. Most people have this where they get stuck in a grove of a habit and the habit repeats over and over.. you know that saying that got popularized by the video game "far cry 3" about doing the same things over and over and expecting different results....
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