We humans imagine that we have free will. We are programmed in such a way that we have the illusion that we determine completely autonomously what we do and do not do. But if we think logically and soberly, we realize that we absolutely do not have that free will. And we’re not just talking about the pre-programmed uncontrollable urge for food, safety, warmth and sex. Because in addition to these indomitable primal urges, hereditary characteristics, upbringing and environment also play a decisive role in who we have become and how we act.
Man is a product of parents, upbringing and environment
Because we ultimately did not choose our parents, we automatically have no influence on important matters that determine who we have become and how we behave. Just think about:
Spiritual aspects
Your intellectual abilities, IQ, sexual orientation, character, talents, artistic skills, physique, etc.
Physical aspects
Innate health, physical attractiveness, athletic aptitude, sensory qualities.
Education and school choice
Place of birth, family, neighbors, choice of school, teachers, setting a good example. These are also all matters over which you have little or no influence until puberty.
In other words, the individual we have grown into is the product of hereditary predispositions and environmental influences over which we have had no influence whatsoever. This implies that all our actions, initiatives, good and bad decisions, are ultimately inevitable actions of that creation, that individual, for which we were formed.
Free will is therefore just an idea that we humans (all) have, because we have the strong feeling that we are completely autonomous in determining which activities and actions we perform. But that feeling is based on an illusion. All our operations, decisions, activities, etc. are in fact already determined before we carry them out, which does not mean that they are planned in advance. The following will make this clear. (Oh yes, and according to this theory, it was also known for centuries who would read this article today.)
Coincidence does not exist
The phenomenon of coincidence is in fact an inevitable combination of circumstances. Let us give an example of this inevitability. Meeting someone you know in an unexpected place is often called coincidence. But if anything is an unavoidable coincidence, it is such a chance encounter. After all, you decided to leave the house at a certain time and took a certain route. Since the other person also started traveling a certain route at a certain point, it is completely logical and inevitable that you will meet each other (in Africa). It is just as coincidental/inevitable as meeting an unknown person-X from New York or Andijk, but of course it is not noticeable.
A person is like a falling stone
If you throw a stone off a cliff, it will bounce in all directions depending on what it encounters along the way. Apparently without a system and completely coincidental. But this is a fraud, because if that stone were thrown down a second time under exactly the same conditions (i.e. all molecules are back in place), that stone would follow exactly the same route down to the millimeter and therefore make exactly the same movements and bounces. . There is only one path possible at a certain date/time, wind direction, stone shape, rock vegetation, distance, position of the Earth/sun/moon, etc.
You can compare a person’s life with a falling stone. We are also ,thrown off a cliff, the moment we are born. Although we think we choose our own route, this is a deception as our route is determined by the person we are (the shape of the stone) and the things/people we encounter during our lives (the shape and vegetation of the rock).
Product of our parents and environment
As mentioned earlier, a person is actually completely the product of his parents. It was they who made the stone and threw it from the rock. As a baby you are 100% the product of your father and mother, not only physically, but also mentally. But even after that, as a growing adult you have no influence on your development. After all, your parents raise you, while aunt, grandfather, neighbor and grandmother also exert their influence. You also have absolutely no control over what you encounter at school and in the neighborhood. It is therefore no coincidence who and what you experience, but it is an inevitable combination of circumstances that determine your fate and learning process. Because your parents also only have partial control over who your teachers are, which (wrong) friends you meet, what things you see, what experiences you have, what fun and/or bad things you see on TV.
You therefore have no influence on your education and development, although your teachers and parents undoubtedly teach you that you are responsible for your actions, that you must do the right thing and leave the bad thing. That’s fine of course because you learn a lot from it. (By the way, those teachers and parents do not inculcate this in you out of their own free will, but also because they have no other choice.)
of age
Finally you are an adult and responsible for your own actions. If you were lucky enough to have a good upbringing and your parents taught you to be social and work for a living, you will be able to start a family. Although falling in love with a ,coincidentally, passing beauty also has more to do with uncontrollable urges than with free will. And it was inevitable that you would meet that life partner because, just like you, he had the idea of going for a walk that afternoon. So you really have no control over what type of person you will live with.
The sequel of the falling stone
As a falling rock, you have changed shape after about 50 years, because you have lost shards and molecules due to (hard) contact with the rock. Maybe you’re also a little polished, having been swept along a river in a swirling rapid for a while. This makes your movements slightly different, but you have no control over that because it all happened under the influence of that inevitable gravity.
Important decisions in life
Once again, it seems as if we make important choices autonomously out of free will. But in reality, our hormones, our innate character, our experiences, our minds determine the choice that inevitably belongs to us at that decisive moment. We cannot take a different path than our programming tells us.
If you replay the film images of your life fragment by fragment, and therefore look back in reverse, you understand that you could only act in one way at a time, namely as happened . Then you also realize that in fact there are no bad and no good people, since man is a product of parents and circumstances, who will inevitably act the way he/she has acted.
We act as if we have free will
In everyday practice we rarely think about the above theory. But there is the idea, and of course the belief among most, that we do act of our own free will and are responsible for our actions. Usually that is the best attitude we can adopt, because taking a fatalistic attitude all together may not make life any better.
This article was written on 8/15/2011 because it was my strongest urge that night. I had some time because my wife was invited to a party. So if I hadn’t met my wife ,by chance, once, this piece probably wouldn’t have been written then. Although it was inevitable a million years ago that I would bump into her in 1971.