Free Will Or Standstill?

This is our 10th episode, and I am insanely psyched to have you guys here with me. And if you're not a regular here, just know here at Abstract Audio, everything I do, I do for you guys, the listeners. I pick these topics with you guys in mind. I plan the segments around what you guys want to hear. I optimize the site for your viewing and streaming pleasure, and I do all that of my own free will. Well, to an extent. And that's the rabbit hole we're headed down today, folks the mystery that is free will. Now, considering last episode, we talked about control, power, and how our innate quest for both can simultaneously hinder and help us. I wanted to bring the idea of free will into the mix. Stir up the pot a little, because the idea of helping yourself in life, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps to gain things like power, control, et cetera, wouldn't really be possible without free will. Or would it? The idea of free will is one that's haunted even the most astute minds for centuries, and today's inquiring minds are no different. If anything, it's more debated now than ever before. On that topic, though, the thing most of us fail to realize is that free will isn't simply doing what you want to do all the time. It has parameters. When you take the actual definition of free will into consideration, things get even more complex. It's officially classified as the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate, or the ability to act at one's own discretion. Or in philosophy and science, it means the supposed power or capacity of humans to make decisions or perform actions independently of any prior event or state of the universe. Now, when you break it down like that, a number of different questions arise, right? Like, if free will is contingent on fate's absence, do you believe in fate at all? Or if one's own discretion is necessary to make decisions, where does that authority cease? Is any action ultimately more than just a reaction to prior events? Well, personally, I don't believe in free will, but I do wholeheartedly believe in fate. I feel like you kind of have to if you acknowledge the development of any events beyond your own personal control. I just believe everything happens for a reason, and that reason is very much so predetermined. The argument against free will also revolves around the idea that human actions are ultimately determined by factors beyond our control, such as genetics, upbringing and environmental influences. These factors shape our thoughts, beliefs and desires, which in turn guide our decision making processes. In my opinion, if the ends are predetermined, are the means we use to get there truly our own? Even if you're not a particularly spiritual person, or if you don't believe in God or a higher power, you must think that there is some type of grand design in all this. You know, a certain path. All roads lead to the punchline, to the joke, so to speak. Otherwise, we'd just be out here aimlessly, floating around the cosmos, and your life and everyone else's would be for. Not to say that this is an impossible scenario, but it certainly supports a healthier, more optimistic mindset to think things are all happening as they should, when they should, resulting in an intended outcome. That your life isn't pointless, that your existence plays an important role, no matter how small, in the grandiose place. It is our reality. And if that doesn't bring you some peace in life, I'm not sure what will.