Is free will a myth?

[Teeqoz]

RolStoppable said:

Teeqoz said:

All this talk about physics is because our brain, like everything else in this universe, works through it. It's how the universe, and everything in it, works.

The thoughts in our brains are nothing more than electrical signals and chemicals reacting. The same goes for instincts, but the reactions are less complex but quicker.

Human's brains work in the same fundamental way as animals do. Telling ourselves anything else is just out of arrogance because we want to be special. Fact of the matter is, your brain is just a very complicated chemical reaction. Not some special supernatural thing that works differently than anything else in the universe. This isn't just an argument of instincts vs "decision making process". Yes, humans don't always act the way our instincts suggest we do. Sometimes, we have a longer thought process before we perform an action, and that longer thought process (read: complicated chemical reaction) sometimes gives us a different result than the quick instincts (fast chemical reaction). However that doesn't mean we decide the outcome of the longer thought process. It is still just a chemical reaction that we have no control over, and we don't decide the results conciously. It's just the result of the complicated chemical reaction, just like our instincts are the result of a quick chemical reaction.

Of course, there are those (quite a few of them actually) that believe in higher supernatural powers like a God or whatever. And that's the only way we could have free will: there being something supernatural that enables us to. I doubt it though.

I don't think human brains are a supernatural thing. However, they are undeniably significantly more advanced than animal brains.

I am absolutely convinced that I consciously did not call you an idiot yet.

If you get asked how much is 2+2, do you feel that it needs supernatural powers to give a correct answer? Do you feel that you have no power or control when thinking about how much 2+2 is? Do you feel that you do not have the choice to deliberately give an incorrect answer?

All that talk about physics doesn't make much sense. You make it sound like humans have absolutely no control over what their brains do and the decisions they make. You make it sound like the brain works like the heart which is on autopilot. But when I ask you how much is 2+2, you can order your brain to provide an answer to the question and then you can control your body to give an answer to the question whether it's by saying it out loud or writing it down. Or you can choose to not give an answer. You can choose your behavior.

If I ask you what 2+2 is, I'm actually pretty confident your brain will think 4 automatically, without you conciously wanting it to (but I doubt you'd mind either. It just happens). And that talk about physics makes sense, because it's true. You just wave it off by saying it doesn't make much sense, but explain to me, why doesn't it make much sense? What is incorrect about it? Nothing. It's the way it works.

 

I make it sound like we don't have a say as to what our brains do, because we don't. Stimuli and external factors trigger chemical reactions in your brain, and you have no say as to what the result of that reaction is. It just follows the laws of physics. Unless you do believe there is something about your brain that doesn't follow the laws of physics, then you in reality agree with me. You just refuse to admit it, to both yourself and to me.