I Have Solved the Problem of Free Will
The most important decision you can ever make: Do you want to live your own life?
Can “Free Will” be free?
Why is Free Will important?
One of the most prolific and efficient commenters, Mark contributed the following after my previous article,
https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/p/which-would-you-own-if-you-had-the/comment/11576387
The interpretations of the “bible” are what have kept mankind at war with one another for eons; while paradoxically they all scream “our way is peace” from over the fence;
Religion is the root of most evil in my humble opinion; Religion is the biggest business in the world; Religion is where false idols are created and worshiped; Religion[s] are naught but legitimate cults that feed on the sorrow and guilt of the helpless;
In God there is spirit; In us there is God; this is not Religion; this is belief in “something” greater than all of us
His insinuations aside, his thoughts inspired me to write the following, because the problem he addresses seems to be quite universal in today’s American culture and quite debilitating for many people who have been confused by mass manipulation and lost the ability to think clearly and fearlessly.
The conversation
Here is my answer (in response to his comment, I thanked him and added a link to this article):
Sorry, Mark, religion is no more evil than man himself. It has been used as the ideology that secured law and order and social stability for eons. In fact, its role was the same as that of “The American Dream”: to make sure that the disadvantaged accept their places and have hope that one day (or in a “next life,” whatever that means) they will be better off, but for the time being, they deserve their lot. Therefore, ALL civilizations have always defaulted to the same structural pattern:
Apocalypse Now
In the history of humanity, five castes have always been present. With some patience, you can find the matching groups in any civilization, including the most primitive ones, by applying analogies to the categories below. In each entry, after the semi-colons, I am providing the matching terms/classes from feudalism.
Without religion, there is no unifying ideology for a culture (unless you count in “The American Dream,” for which, one has to be asleep , which causes the culture to fall apart; the phenomenon can be observed in the US at this very moment.
Faith in science cannot replace independent thinking*
Scientism was introduced as a replacement for religion by the 1870s, when Positivism gained space among philosophies. Epistemologically (“how knowledge can be obtained”), Positivism and Scientism use the same bases as Freemasonry, because they assign the “truth” to perception and logic, which severely and irredeemably truncates what a human being is. Humans are infinitely more than perception and logic:
What Makes You Think You Are Right?
Sometimes facts speak for themselves. Who or what is going to speak for you?
So, the least convincing source of truth judgment for people is perception, and logic overrides it, but logic is overridden by emotions and intuitions, while all of the previous three levels are superseded by existential decisions**.
How about Free Will?
This brings up the eternal question whether Free Will exists. Even in the most innocuous situations, it is impossible to prove whether it does or it doesn’t. I used to demonstrate this to my students be lifting a pencil from the desk about 5” and asked them if it was my decision to drop it (it would have caused no harm) or gently put it back where it was. Obviously, that would depend on a number of variables, out of which my primary and secondary conditioning take the lead over my current mood, because even my current mood can be relegated to both. While this oversimplifies the question, because my actions from the time I became self-conscious also affect my current disposition, the point is made.
Where and when is Free Will possible?
How much room is left for Free Will, if any?
Here comes the mother of all truth judgments, which I am calling the “existential” level, because it is based on what kind of life I am willing to accept instead of getting killed for my non-conformist behavior. That’s where people have to make up their own minds, because nobody else can do that for them. For me, I don’t want to live in a world where I am literally muzzled and can’t breathe freely, even if some mysterious disease kills me for my decision. I don’t even want to live in a world, where I, or other people, cannot speak freely. I don’t even care to survive as long as the Creator (obviously, this world, including me, is being created every single moment) doesn’t mean well, and I cannot join in contributing to His Creation.
My conclusion is that my existential decisions come from my nature as a human being and my understanding the human condition, so they are rarely, if ever, based on my conditioning that otherwise predestine most of my moods, feelings, orientations, and “decisions” that I think I am “free” to make.
So, THERE IS a tiny cognitive place for Free Will, albeit it is hardly, if ever, recognized or used by people who prefer to play the game of making someone else responsible for their decisions, out of convenience, ignorance, fear, or conformity. If only they realized that once they place their lives into someone else’s hands, they are not living their own lives anymore; not only are they spiritually dead, but will also have a rude awakening one day, realizing that they started a deadly game against themselves and those whom they tried to make responsible, simply don’t care for them. As most of such people are willing to protect their captors (as in Stockholm syndrome), they might not realize this even when they are dying. Their philosophy seems to be:
The problem is, that punishment is also self-served for not using Free Will.
According to the Bible (for thinking about it, it doesn’t matter if you believe in the Bible or not, and this is only my observation), only those can be resurrected, who have lived their own lives (my interpretation of the promise that not everyone will be resurrected).
Being religious doesn’t ensure Free Will; it is easily possible to “have faith” and still remain a mindless drone or a dispirited conformist.
Everybody is forced to make at least this one decision
For those, who want to live their own lives, exercising Free Will is inevitable.
The only question to ask themselves is,
“What kind of a world am I willing to live in?”***
* Scientific knowledge doesn’t affect the most important decisions in life and it is shaky enough as it is, to the point of being grotesque:
https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/p/freaks-of-science
** Still, it’s prudent and effective to solve a problem at the cognitive level, where it arises; a prayer or “feeling positive” is not going to solve a complex mathematical problem, and counting on your fingers would take for ever.
*** For the time being, I also have a dream:
I have seen websites destroyed by swamped by lengthy, frequent, and/or irrelevant comments, so IF YOU WANT THIS SITE TO LAST, please, consider the following.
It has become a MAJOR problem that lots of topics are raised that do not pertain to the subject of the article. I am guilty, because I started to participate in such conversations previously, but I won’t be able to do it any longer.
I guess, it is because my time is limited, I haven’t done it, but people are coming up with several good topics that I must start separately in order to keep discussions on the subject. Swamping a comment section with irrelevant comments, no matter how interesting they are, deters good commenters, and eventually readers, in the long run.
Would you like to suggest topics for which I can start up articles for discussions?
Comment here or respond to the e-mail about any of my posts:
https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/p/do-not-swamp-my-comment-sections
Please, notice that I’ll be unlikely to be able to join the conversations most of the time, so if you have a problem, you have to report it.
IMPORTANT REQUEST:
Also, I am asking you to keep your comments at a reasonable size and do not post more than a few in a comment section, because that phenomenon has become rampant recently. When comment sections are taken over by a few people, others stay away, which is against the purpose of my site.
When I notice again that someone takes over a whole section with unnecessarily lengthy (they could start up their own Substack and insert links instead), exceedingly frequent, or repeatedly irrelevant comments, that person will be the first person I’ll have to ban.
It's the most important question a human being can ask himself. The younger one asks it the better but you are not going to be thanked for it. In other words it does not seem to be part of the accepted rites of initiation.
The affirmative answer comes at a high price, the negative at an even higher. That however is perceived only in hindsight. And so a lot of people are led astray.