FREE WILL?

OR FATE, GENETICS & COSMIC DETERMINISM?

Some argue that we were not born free, that every thought and action is determined by the genetic cards we were dealt at conception — our biologically inherited physical and mental abilities. The counter argument is that we are free, that every thought and action is determined by the socially acquired circumstances that motivate us to want and to will one course of action over another. It's been my experience that fate and free will are attitudes. You're free to choose one course over another. The winds will be favorable or not according to the set of your sail.

Yes, we are externally determined by the laws of nature and circumstances beyond our control. But we are internally free by the laws of reason and circumstances within our control. Our genes are only inherited tendencies which can be over ridden by reason and decisiveness to acquire a code of values (a system of principles) to respond (make choices) to circumstances in a moral (responsible) way .

Everything in nature functions according to its individual nature. Acorns naturally grow into oak trees, fire burns, fish swim, birds fly. Nature cannot violate the cosmic chain of cause and effect, we cannot step outside the human chain of cause and effect. But within the limits of our nature, we are free to think and act in ways that result in happiness and individualization...

IF we base our thoughts and actions on objective knowledge and reasoning, not on the subjective beliefs and emotions that come from our senses, our imagination or from outside influences, such as religious fear, peer pressure and self-esteem grounded in the opinions of other people.

Reasoning validated by experience leads to objective knowledge, the inductive, cause-and-effect reality of something. Emotions lead to subjective beliefs, the deductive, non-causal idea of something. Reason is therefore a reliable guide to freedom, the right way of living.

The person who lives by the guidance of reason knows what to do and why he should do it. The rational person acts according to his own internal nature. The emotional person lives according to the nature of external things. That doesn't mean a person who lives by reason is free of emotions and external influences. If it did, free people would be outside of nature (reality). It means a free person doesn't allow external influences and internal emotions to have motivational efficacy.