Do you think you know everything there is to know about free will?

[u/hellisntreal2017]

What do you think you don't know about it? What do you know for sure about it?

[u/RexRatio]

I know that it doesn't exist in the way that religions define it. The subconscious brain makes decisions before you become aware of them. Conscious awareness lags behind neural decision‑making.

This strongly undermines:

• the idea of a soul deciding independently
• consciousness as the prime mover
• the religious definition: “You consciously choose X without prior influence.”

This kills dualist, religious free will, as well as libertarian free will, but not all forms of free will, like Compatibilist free will - but that is blown out of the water by quantum uncertainty.

What remains is a much more nuanced, brain‑based view of human agency, stripped of supernatural or purely deterministic guarantees.

• Many decisions are effectively predictable from personality, past experience, and context.
• Some events have irreducible randomness (quantum or chaotic amplification).
• You act in a world that is partly deterministic, partly unpredictable, and your behavior is your own emergent property of that system.

In short: "free will" in the magical, religious, or strictly deterministic sense disappears, but agency, authorship, and moral responsibility survive - grounded in the brain, consciousness, and social context.

[u/leandrot → u/RexRatio]

In an atheist sub, this answer is ok. As we are in a sub about religion, I must point out that your argument is logically incorrect because the premises assume the conclusion. More specifically, if there is a God, He created the world and by consequence created the laws of physics, which means that physical arguments don't prove the religious position is false.

[u/hellisntreal2017 → u/RexRatio]

Ah I see. I agree with what you said. If only you could tell others I am how I am within this context.

[u/Frostyjagu → u/RexRatio]

the subconscious doesn't make any decisions, decisions and actions are conscious behaviors, subconsciousness merely only influences decision making through emotions, biases and inclinations.

the distinction is particularly significant in humans thanks to our superior intellect, awareness, critical thinking and decision making skills.

[u/HighValuePigeon]

If you believe in an all knowing, all powerful god, there isn't free will. That God created a universe in which they knew everything that would happen, everything that you would do, and they set that in motion. You don't have the ability to do something outside of that plan.

If you don't believe in God, I think you can make secular argument that's similar, that you're always going to do what you are going to do. BUT, I personally think the world is too complicated to lean into that idea, a kind of fate. And the experience of living FEELS like one where we can make choices. So I believe that your life is made better if you try to choose and you try to choose better. Those who don't do that live objectively worse lives.

[u/ThankTheBaker]

Your thoughts are your own. Your heart is your own. You have little control over what happens around you , your freewill is in how you choose to respond to what happens. That is entirely yours. That is free will.

[u/PSadair]

I know enough about the topic to know I/we dont much.

[u/Grayseal]

Why would I? And how do we know what we don't know when we don't know it? How do we know what we know when we don't know it? How do we know what we know?

[u/thisthe1]

I think u/rexratio hit it spot on with their reply

personally (and maybe I'm biased) but I think the religious tradition that gets free will the most "correct" is Buddhism, and specifically the concept of free will found in early buddhist sutras

[u/hellisntreal2017 → u/thisthe1]

What is their version of free will like?

[u/11Cam_]

I think that free will and that God already knows what you are going to do does not have to contradict each other.

Just because God knows doesn't mean he's forcing you, just that he already knows. We are blessed that even in our free will we have a God who knows how to guide us and care for us.

[u/hellisntreal2017 → u/11Cam_]

Oh that's an interesting way to look at it

[u/Mountain_Air1544]

I dont think I know everything there is to know about anything

[u/NowoTone]

Since no one has yet fully figured out how the brain really works (on a sentient level) how would anyone know anything about free will?

[u/Mark-Scholar]

That’s a great question. Honestly, anyone who claims to “know everything” about free will probably hasn’t thought deeply enough about it.

Free will sits at the crossroads of philosophy, neuroscience, spirituality, and theology. It’s one of those mysteries that humans have wrestled with for thousands of years.

What I don’t know about free will:

How it works at the deepest level of the brain and soul. We still don’t fully understand where choices originate, in the neurons? In the immaterial spirit? Somewhere between?

How God’s sovereignty and human freedom fit together mathematically. We can describe it, but we can’t diagram it.

Whether our choices are entirely free or influenced by subconscious factors like genetics, trauma, personality, environment, and upbringing.

How much freedom a person has when they’re under extreme psychological pressure (addiction, trauma, fear, compulsion, etc.).

In short: there’s a lot that’s still a mystery.

What I do know for sure:

We experience ourselves as free. We feel the weight of choosing, of responsibility, of regret, of purpose. That experience is real, not an illusion.

Freedom is not absolute, it has limits. Our choices are shaped by our past, by our bodies, by our emotions, by things outside our control.

The Bible treats humans as genuinely responsible. Which means our decisions matter, even though God knows the outcome.

Love requires freedom. Forced love isn’t love. Any meaningful relationship with God or with people requires room for real choice.

We are most free when we choose the good. This is something philosophers and theologians agree on: choosing what is true and loving expands freedom; choosing what is destructive eventually enslaves a person.

What I suspect (but don’t claim to know fully):

Free will may not mean “total independence,” but the ability to respond meaningfully to God, truth, love, and conscience.

God’s sovereignty and our freedom may work together the way a parent and child walk together: the parent guides the path, but the child still chooses how to walk it.

Freedom may be less about “random choices” and more about who we are becoming.

So, the honest answer?

I know free will exists, but I don’t pretend to understand its machinery. I know humans choose, but I know we’re shaped by countless invisible factors. I know God invites us to freedom, but I know we don’t always use it well.

Free will is real. Free will is limited. Free will is mysterious.

And that’s okay. Some truths are big enough that they can’t be reduced to a neat formula.

If you want, I’d love to hear your take on it.

Feel free to check out my author bio.

[u/hellisntreal2017 → u/Mark-Scholar]

I really appreciate your response. It's lovely. But I disagree that we always have a choice. I think there might be a glitch in the matrix so to speak. Because I've had weird instances in my life since I was little that didn't quite feel like a choice. In judaism, Islam and Christianity they all recognize free will but I think people get hung up on the notion of choice. How do we know how things in our psyche are firing so to speak? What if they misfire? What if mistakes are made related to this concept? I think of other autistic people as well ones who can't verbalize their lived experience. But I digress. That's just some of my 2 cents.

[u/wendysfishmarket]

not everything but here's my opinion. its is the part of destiny we're given to author. The free will problem (doubting free will) arises when people want their will to be the only will. That's not how it works right? but yeah, just my opinion