No matter if you were biased or using your free will. You ended up making the right choices : Being Atheist and drinking mocha latte

I never think about "free will". I've never suffered from any kind of
existential angst.
I was born not believing and indoctrination didn't take.
I knew it was ALL bullshit from the start.
I don't have "doubts".

Congratulations on returning to everyone's default position.
We are ALL born atheists. Everything else has to be taught.

Call it whatever you wish - but at any crossroad in our lives, be it trivial, or consequential, we decide which road to take - every time. Even if we're under pressure from outside sources. Even if the choice is to avoid making a choice at all - thus leaving us with the haphazard results of our own non-choosing.

PS - several months ago, I was unhappy with my long standing excessive intake of chocolate, and candy in general. I decided to stop it all. And I did. My choice - and it has proved to be a very good one !

Looks like you've put your finger on another big faultline among members here. Those who believe in free will and those who don't. Interesting.

Free will is a tricky thing because you can find yourself second guessing your motives for whatever the said action (or inaction) is. Are we guilted into doing something by some code of ethics handed down via family or ingrained in us via some school or church? The quivering conscience we created for ourselves in the name of doing the right thing? But what is "the right thing"? It should be to be true to yourself but that's not the case because we are taught to act generously and help others and put others above our own needs. Most decisions we make are done with the thoughts and consequences of how it will impact someone else: "I don't want to go but I probably should because (name) will be sad if I don't." "I can't buy that, it wouldn't be fair to my sister, she can't afford one." etc., etc. Even our strongly held convictions are at jeopardy because we try to placate or even NOT alienate anyone. When we try to deviate from this and "just do it" because we want to...guilt inevitable follows. So, while in theory, free will is ours for the taking (or doing), it's not "free", nothing is ever free. You pay for it with your conscience.

Oh, and as for the chocolate thing....If you want it, eat it (drink it). If YOU think you need to cut back than do it... YOUR choice.

@VictoriaNotes, this is your bailiwick. Personally I do my best to ignore the fact that I don't have free will. Because believing I don't have free will tends to make me less of the person I want to be, meaning that I make more limited choices. This was/is even more true for my son as he tends to think of himself as a GIGO machine (garbage in, garbage out).

Interesting read. This video is worth watching. I enjoy watching all of his videos.

How is this an arguement Against free will? You appear to be exercising using free will with every change of your mind......

I think the problem with arguments both for and against "free will" lay in the lack of a strict definition of what "free" and "will" are in this context. Is "will" somehow separate from other aspects of our psyche and therefore unconnected with other things that influence us? Is it somehow inviolable and independent of experience? I would argue that our "will" is shaped by our experience but not determined by it. And does "free" mean that something outside our selves determines our choices? Or does it mean that for any decision there is the possibility of an aleatoric choice? Given a singularly experienced future, one could argue that the choice made in the past was determined by the presence of the currently experienced future. Of course this is given the framework of our experience in which quantum probabilities collapse at the point of observation. Perhaps it's our observation of choice that collapses us into determinism.

Those who believe in free will are counter intuitively the easiest to manipulate. By assuming that your own actions are completely yours and not subject to underlying subconscious bias, you leave yourself vulnerable to subtle cues that dictate your actions.

Only by realizing that you are constantly subjected to influence can you reclaim any meaningful resistance to that influence, and finally limit your chocolate mocha latte intake.

free will has been pretty effectively disproven. we have the freedom to stop ourselves from doing something, but the choice to do begins before the decision making section of the brain engages. your brain takes an action, and then your 'mind' has a chance to veto... nothing more.

I think you could compare being Atheist to being gay in this situation. Being gay is not a choice, it is simply who you are from the beginning.

A gay man, for example, may deny his feelings, much like the religious deny their feelings of doubt. They tell themselves that it's wrong or bad to have these thoughts. That gay man may even marry a woman and have children, living for many years the way he's "supposed to". Then, over time he comes to recognize his feelings have always been correct and no longer wishes to live a lie.

I don't think you can will yourself to believe in religion again, even if you did for many years. It's just not who you are anymore and trying would be pointless.

As I understand the concept, the free will theory is not the view that one is free to choose anything but, rather, that there are at least some alternatives one is free to choose from. I hope my beliefs are determined by the relevant evidence (rather than by my desires), but I agree that they are determined. However, it still may be that I am free to choose to do my duty rather than yield to a contrary desire (or vice versa). Not so?

It's called critical thinking, congrats on arriving.

We are all born without religion, nationality or specific language. We get processed into becoming little Hindus, Muslims, Jews or Pastafarians. Some of us are fortunate enough to grow up without religion and some are even fortunate enough to grow up without patriotism. The latter might even be rarer.

PS: Concerning my original post, I would like to add that I don't find life futile or try to negate personal responsibility. I simply think that we are the products of our brains and environmental/cultural programming. The decisions we make are not pre-decided, set in stone, or guided by some god or conscious universe; BUT, they are influenced, perhaps even controlled, by how we perceive things and how our brains process information. So, since my brain is me--it is me making the decision. However, I cannot change the way my brain works. I have no control over how I perceive things, what I innately like or dislike, whom I am attracted to or not, etc. I don't know why when looking at different outfits I will want to wear one thing and not another (all things equal); or why some days I want to do nothing but binge watch Netflix and others I wake up and want to clean house or do yard work. And, just as I did not choose to not believe in any gods, I cannot choose to believe in any--for that I would need evidence that would convince my brain of its existence--then, of course, belief would no longer necessary.

I agree, I never sought to be an atheist. I arrived at it through experience.

I think that free will exists, even if it is an emergent phenomonon because of how complex our brains are. There are also quantum arguements that might support free will as a indepentant idea.

I think that the appearance of free will to our own conciousness is all we really need.

The problem with no free will is that it takes away any thoughts of responsibility. Like the cheating partner that says "It just happened". No it fucking didn't! Unless you were raped you made lots of conscious decisions to end up having sex with someone else. Yes, there may have been umpteen amounts of emotional forces at work but you chose to get your kit off and to have sex.
I used to have a big problem with gambling. I stopped betting but that does not mean that its not still a problem, just a smaller one. It would have been easy for me to stay the way I was but "chose" to change my lifestyle.
Personally, I to look at it this way. There are lots of things we cannot do anything about,.nature/nurture they are the cards that we are dealt. How we chose to play them is in part, up to us.

I hear ya about that chocolate problem.
I think I follow what your saying.
Although...
we are all faced with decisions beyond religion and/or beliefs. We can choose to hold a door, look the other way, go drinking after work, book the trip, apply for that job...
I don't have any solid answers one way or the other, but we may, just maybe, have some freedom to pick own paths, at least a little?

I always say, "I didn't choose my gender, my genetic makeup, my family, my parents, my heritage..." I do have some 'influence' on my life, but not enough to call it free will.

that is a rather strange description of free will. of course we do not have free will regarding everything. you may wish to rob a bank but chances are someone will stop you. do you choose what to wear in the morning? you're limited by what you have available but you had a hand in that too. i am not saying this proves free will; i am saying that your post doesn't DISprove it.

g

Much like my path to free thinking and don't get me started on chocolate! lol

You can select between the stores you shop at. You can also select the clothes you wear.

Your brain makes choices. You have free will.

i think Schopenhauer has it right on free will.

I certainly feel like I have free will--at least when it comes to making certain decisions. I certainly appear to make the choice to either post this, or not. But, absolute free will is an illusion, in my opinion. Our actions are based on the brains we have and the programming we have received and will receive--meaning that other input can cause our mind to change its way of thinking (like what happened to me about believing in a god). I have a brain that allowed that change--as I think most of us do; but programming can be so strong in some that they cannot allow any change in thought. Or perhaps, it is just the way their brains are wired and they cannot change the way they think? Studies are showing that there is a difference in the brains of conservatives and liberals (see link below). Also, if we have free will, I would like to know at what point we have it? Are we born with it? Does a toddler have it? Does it appear once we have the ability to rationally consider the consequences of our actions? Is someone weak willed if they cannot seem to overcome a bad habit--even though it is causing them harm or puts them in possible danger? Do we not have it if we don't have the ability to reason? My mother has dementia and I see her doing things she would never have done with her pre dementia brain; so, where is her free will, or the free will of anyone with a compromised brain? Yes, I make choices, but those choices are determined by the brain I currently have--and can, and likely will, change if my brain chemistry changes or if other input causes my brain to start firing in a way that causes me to change my view on something--even if I do not currently have any desire to change my mind about it. [businessinsider.com]