Brittany Rexroat 
Lacy Hanson Free will.
Do you have it?
If you do, then you’re responsible for your actions. You’re responsible for yourself.
If you don’t…well then you’re not responsible for your actions. Your choices in religion, or in anything else aren’t in your control. So laws don’t really make much sense….So civilization doesn’t have any foundation….and if people are meant to live without civilization, then what’s the point in life? What could possibly be the reason? Hedonism? But Hedonism is greater with civilization. Why exist without free will? I suppose if there is no God…then perhaps it is possible. Otherwise, no-it is not possible.
Can we test free will?
We can give proof for its existence. We each make decisions every day and exercise our free will extensively.
Can we disprove free will? No.
Can we reason that there is no free will? I certainly can’t, and I’ve been trying hard. Nor have I seen an acceptable line of reason from anything I’ve read.
I suppose free will, although true, is much closer to the black-sheep paradox(or perhaps a better one that I’m unfamiliar with.)
We can prove the appearance of it’s existence, but perhaps we can’t really prove it as a fact…
Either way, I think it’s just about the first thing I will believe in.
Brittany Rexroat
10:08 pm, 03.21.11
your blog post really makes me think about free will and how it relates to our lives everyday. very well done!
Myriah Miller
10:19 pm, 03.21.11
I think without free will we are victims of our surroundings. If we say that we do not have free will we are not taking responsibility for choices that are ours to make.
Terry Osborne
10:27 pm, 03.21.11
Like your thoughts Brady! I agree, God gave us free will to choose things for ourselves. His plan was that we will seek him first!
Derek Mar
10:47 pm, 03.21.11
I definitely agree with you. Without free will I can find no real purpose in living. I think that it is in our ability to choose and act that give our life meaning.
Lacy Hanson
11:08 pm, 03.21.11
I like your thoughts and agree with them. Free will is how we find outselves as people. Without it, we would all be “robots” or “puppets” of a master in a sense. I’d like to think that we have free will to choose what path we go down in life.
Jodi Bell
11:15 pm, 03.21.11
Your post also made me think about how religion, including the idea of God and free will, is influenced by behavioral psychologists and how they view it. From Skinners perspective it we are all conditioned to act and believe certain thinks, like religion, then where did it start. Who was the original teacher that made up this concept of God and free will and how our we conditioned to make our own choices and not follow those around us.
John Day IV
11:26 pm, 03.21.11
I do not like to think of determinism as a singular train of though like Biological determinism, but as a conjunction of discoveries about man and why he behaves the way he does. As in using all forms of determinism together to form a model of behavior not saying this reasonable to do just that if any part of the environment in omitted for a deterministic view of behavior then the model should be expected to have exceptions. Determinism can only be proven in when all models relating to behavior and our environment are complete which I believe is impossible. Even in the event that determinism is true in all respects as you motioned in one of your post we still have will in determinism it is just the actions we take with regards possible wills would then be predetermined. So it is not that you are not responsible it is that everything led you to making that action so everything is to blame which kind of makes nothing to blame. If we follow the whole it is my fate thing we would all be like William James during his crisis wallowing in our fate never making any changes because we lack the ability to change. Just my thoughts…
Brady Campbell
11:36 pm, 03.21.11
I re-visisted the page and discovered that I typo-ed…
(insert ashamed face here)
Candice Watson
11:59 pm, 03.21.11
Thanks for sharing. Proving and disproving free will seems so difficult, but I don’t understand how it cannot exist. If I can understand my options, foresee believed consequences, and make a decision based on these..how is that not free will? I don’t take God as the manipulative sort. I think he wants us to believe in, love, and follow him because we chose to, not because he decided we would.
Brady Campbell
12:10 am, 03.22.11
I think that makes great sense entirely! The words you used aren’t very defensible, at least as far as scientific theories go, but I think there is a way to word it. I am not an eloquent man, or I would attempt it myself, but perhaps someone else has/will.