Do men have free will

Answer 1

I believe we do have free will, or how would we be able to do things The Bible says to do, such as to CHOOSE God, and if we had no free will, wouldn't it be kind of mean of God to let people go to hell if they disobey him? And also if we have no free will, how can our children obey us by choice? If we expect them to obey, then we punish them if they disobey, we would be punishing them for things they can't help doing, if they have no free will.

Answer 2

Another answer from our community:

Yes, free will is what makes us human. The ability to believe in what we perceive to be truth. That is why we are the only sentient beings. For example when Archimedes got into the tub and water was displaced by his matter he saw what happened, reasoned out the why of what happened, and then used that to discover more things where as an example of the alternative would be a raccoon with it's hand stuck in a nail trap. It cant realize that if it would let go of the shiny then it could get its hand out and the trapper wouldn't kill it. Some people argue that for a God to exist that has an active hand in our goings and comings then we cannot have free will. The truth of the matter is that everything that happens happens because God allows it to happen not because he made it happen.

Answer 3

Of course we do. Even wild animals have free will, and why should we be less gifted than an animal. Furthermore, without free will in some form, there would seem to be no meaning to blame, guilt or praise, and no point in incarcerating offenders, neither as punishment nor for deterence.

Libertarians consider free will is a necessary precondition for moral responsibility. They say that we have absolute free will and that we are therefore morally responsible for our actions.

Soft determinism says that we have circumstantial freedom, but that we are limited by by antecedent causes. We do not really have free will, although we can be morally responsible.

Hard determinism says that we are controlled by our circumstances and external conditions to such an extent that it would be theoretically possible to predict exactly what action a person would take in any particular circumstance. Effectively, this means we do not really have free will. One of the antecedent causes that determines our future actions is praise and another is punishment, so these are meaningful, but retributive justice can not be defended.

Answer 4

Yes, as is stated explicitly (Deuteronomy 30:15-20). Our free-will is completely unlike the decision-processes which animals perform.