by Paul Baioni

Created on: May 09, 2008

Mankind has experienced no greater controversy than the concept surrounding free will and man's ability to control his future. Debated from all angles, scientific, religious, and spiritual, free will has neither been proven nor refuted to any degree of universal acceptance. The reason is that lacking empirical evidence, man has a difficult time accepting issues of faith. Personal beliefs are what determines our motivations. We seek answers to important questions, and lacking verifiable evidence, we turn to reasoned logic. Since logical processes are purely individual in nature, our concepts of free will vary across the full spectrum of possible scenarios.

But what if I were to tell you that everyone is correct in their reasoned belief concerning free will. You would say that is not possible, how can everyone be right? To explain, we must first begin with the concept of control. Control is considered to be the ability to effectuate change through effort. We can't will or wish for change to occur, we must act. When attempting to control a situation, we typically create a cause to an eventual desired effect. This cause can be a physical excursion or a mental stimulus to influence or motivate a desired change. The results are not always exactly as planned, but the impact from the cause has created an effect.

There are so many things in our existence that we can not control, simple examples are found throughout our natural environment. We can not directly control the weather, or earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, rain, clouds, the natural list is endless. We can not really control the actions of others either. We can attempt to influence, but rarely impact to the extent that could be considered fully control. Humans are commonly subject to manipulation due to the inherent weaknesses in our mental capacities. We can be preyed upon by stimulating important beliefs, or voids within our beliefs. Religion has used this ability as a controlling tool for centuries. Man needed answers to important questions, and religion filled those voids with knowledge that for many was sufficient enough to become a very influencing factor for motivating action. Religious doctrine became a foundation for belief in most humans. We lacked anything else verifiable, so we accepted the closest explanation that "fit" within our existing system of beliefs. We can look at the success of cults and other nonconformist groups and the ability of seemingly ridiculous teachings to become accepted

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>