[Annelies]

First: Do you believe you have free will, or that all of your actions are predetermined?

Second: Do you believe your brain alone makes up everything that is YOU, or do you believe you have a soul that goes hand-in-hand with your brain?

Honest answers please.

[japsander]

1. Not "free" will, only a set of permitted choices set out by society

2. A consciousness or more aptly "sentience" cannot be identified so it is not a "physical" part of you (that's the best way to explain it for me). Thoughts etc exist as something other than physical matter

[playluckyhit]

I think if the lives of man were predetermined, the birth of their children would have broken the cycle, destiny or not we still have own minds. You could say that people not fulfilling their destiny is why the world is so broken, meaning its exist. Or that if it did exist we would all be handed everything based on our ethereal given destinies and that hard work was nothing more than an illusion to cover up that some of us were favored over others during creation. I choose to think think we are what we are and and we do what we choose.

To answer the second question I believe personally that there isn't enough evidence toward one answer that isn't made irrelevant by the other. I've thought about that many times and every single time I try to research the topic, both sides have answers that seem to make perfect sense. I think this is a sign that we have some of the pieces of the puzzle, but we don't have enough to finish it and due to that we can mentally finish the puzzle anyway we like if that makes sense. My personal belief is that until I can truly feel what I am, I only know what I think I am, and because of that I am nothing more than my own thoughts and actions, my current feelings being a side effect of the two.

[LoboGuara]

First: No, i dont believe in free will. Our actions is limited and built after external social/religious and familiar values+past experiences. The ethnics, personal values and religions can change and limit the peoples behavior forming groups with a fixed opinion about how they can act and think. There is no free will, only a limited freedom.


Second: I believe our reality is just a mix of our five senses and nothing more. There is no soul imo. Years ago in the university, my etology teacher was talking about animal behavior and how the human beings are good creating entities like soul and mind. Then I asked a question and had no answer:

"If the soul is our essence, what we are, indestructible and eternal like some religions says,
an old man with alzheimer with a damaged brain who forget about himself, depersonalize and lose his memory has a broken soul?"

His personal essence is lost with a physical problem. Then, there is no soul. For me our brain is just like a computer processing the 5 senses information and creating our individual reality. If the "hard disk" or "the hardware" has a problem and some information get missed/mixed, this reality will be altered. Drugs/chemicals can cause a malfunction and change the perception too because we are like biological machines with an biochemical controlled functions.

This can sound like the Skinner behaviorism mixed with Dawkins selfish gene, but imho we are just machines following patterns processing information based on

1) evolutive memory (the primordial stuff who keep us alive avoiding doing stupid things and searching for pleasure - And maybe this is controlled by our genes, for the sake of the specie and not to benefict the person itself
2) Social behavior (you cant have what you want if you are not able to play the groups rules)
3) personal beliefs (can be modeled by the groups) .


IMHO

In the end, we are just animals searching for the same stuff who all other animals want: avoid the pain (keep alive, dont do stupid thing and dont kill yourself) and search for pleasure (make sex and get a confortable home with a lot of food/provisions/fun stuff) but on a very sofisticated way.

I love to talk about these things, its frustrating to have a bad english and cannot be able to express my self in a better way with better words

[japsander]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with your English. You make more sense than most English speakers :-)

[hellsing9]

1) Yes. My actions shapes my destiny, and im my own god. Because if i do something right or wrong it's my doing not someones else. And i have to pay the consequences of my own actions and rewards of my well doing towards another person or situation.
I don't think that everything is already in a book in some other universe or some semigod figure. Neither i think that my path has been already choosen by other entity, i believe as long my body don't leave me my actions as my words will last forever.

2) My brain it's a part of my body as my heart is, and my legs and my whole anatomy. That in a superficial level makes me an indivual. Unique different from the others.
I believe in the concept of the soul, maybe eons could pass but my soul will remain tainted or blessed i honestly don't know. But my soul is my machine to build my own ideas and give more power to my imagination. My soul defines me.

I am my own god (im not a religious freak) Paradox of existence.

Namaste.

(Fixed)

[whatpower]

Your first question is actually both @Annelies , just because things are predetermined does not mean that a person does not have free will. God is all-seer and all-knower, so he HAS to know what is going to happen and what a person will do before they actually do that action, but the person himself does not know what he will or will not do, it is upto him, he can make a choice, but that choice has to be known to God beforehand because of of the above attributes.

It's really the easiest concept to grasp.

EDIT: For #2, if you want to know the concept and definition of the soul, take a look at this (with an open mind and no bias pre-conceptions would help in understanding). http://islamqa.info/en/ref/4395/soul

[Nimation]

1- I think I have free will and it's all up to me. I mean I want to be a famous rapper just like eminem so there's two possibilities
1: I'll focus on my goal, try my best, do what I can and reach my wish... Then some day I will think about I've said here today and take a smile
2: Won't do the same and will stay some piece of **** forever... Then some day I will think about what I've said here today and hit my head against a wall and regret... Saying I could have done it.
And as I said it's all up to me

2- I'm not sure about this one. I was never a good believer and only can believe what I see but when I think of some strange feelings I have, I mean haven't you ever felt like there's something or someone inside you that you can talk to when you're sad, feels you, understands you and could be your best friend. Well then I think all humans have something like that sets us apart from animals.

[pratiko]

1. There is free will determined by society. We aren't masters of our own actions, rather we are influenced to do what we consider goes along with our "hearts".

2. I do believe it is all made up in the brain, although there aren't (as far as I know) concrete studies that could confirm what I'm saying. It just makes the most sense to me. Believing in anything I cannot feel with my senses isn't my thing at all.

[LoboGuara]

Originally Posted by japsander There's absolutely nothing wrong with your English. You make more sense than most English speakers :-)

Thanks!
I take half an hour to write a text in english that would normally take five minutes to write in portuguese