{"id":46720,"date":"2022-05-11T13:13:53","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T13:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/?p=46720"},"modified":"2022-05-11T13:30:39","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T13:30:39","slug":"why-we-have-free-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/2022\/05\/11\/why-we-have-free-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we have free will."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So does free will exist?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course it does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least in the minds of many people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least as a phenomenon in life, a concept for hope and control and some sort of human power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can look that way, for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can feel that way, absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can seem a really important straw to grasp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what about the people who know for sure that it\u2019s bullshit?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the methodical skeptics, the critics, the analyzers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are more than enough people who oppose the whole idea and have talked about it or written books about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple of years ago I spent quite some time deconstructing the notion of free will, and I found it very easy (and totally enjoyable) back then to call it nonsense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess I missed the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or it does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You believe there is free will and that is somehow helpful or soothing or simply part of how you want life to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or you just see it as a na\u00efve and romantic idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And anything in between.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t have to be true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The great thing about being alive is that there are so many flavors to choose from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Or to simply receive, to be injected or infused with, if you don\u2019t believe there\u2019s no such thing as choice.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Debating free will is simply part of life, and for that reason, it\u2019s important and interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Right now I don\u2019t believe there is really something like free will, not ultimately, and I could give you a huge amount of examples to back that up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I won\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because I also believe that it can totally feel like there IS free will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And for me, that is way more interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, and.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, those two seemingly opposite positions can coexist happily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If it feels like I can make a decision, that is what happens, that is how it comes across at the moment, and I can totally indulge in that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t matter if I can \u2018prove\u2019 that it\u2019s an illusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you really think it\u2019s necessary to prove life?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would love feel better or richer or deeper if science approved it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything we can believe or not believe is part of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s important and essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that’s why it exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by @vonshnauzer, for Unsplash)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So does free will exist? Of course it does. At least in the minds of many people. At least as a phenomenon in life, a concept for hope and control and some sort of human power. It can look that way, for sure. It can feel that way, absolutely. It can seem a really important […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46721,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[97,117,100,116,113,103,112],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46720"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46723,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46720\/revisions\/46723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}