If your actions were pre-ordained by some higher power, how would we prove this higher power exists?

If your actions were pre-ordained by some higher power, how would we prove this higher power exists?

Personally I do think we have free will!

first question is what is free will? how could we ever know without knowing this answer?

i dont believe we have free will because we never really have a choice as to what we do. society causes us to conform and therefore we cannot have free will

I think we have the ability to control our actions within our own abilities because we have a mind that acts on its own, and we determine our own future by the actions we take now. I think we have a limit on the capacity of what we are able to control dependant on our skills, abilities, etc and can only accomplish what we are capable of doing with the skills we have. I think a lot of people have the potential to do certain things, its just learning how to use it and fully use this potential, is the problem we still face today.

freewill, with its literal meaning, to be spontaneous and/or voluntary. We do make our own decisions, what we choose to do and think among ourselves, interact with others and act as we do. Altering our futures is logically impossible or improbable, i believe.

I think that you imagine time as a straight line, with the past at one end and the future at another, all of our actions lead up to only one future, and no matter what you do, there will only be that one future. say for example, someone went forward along this line, and saw the future and then went back to the present, no matter what that person does, the future will remain the same. So maybe our actions are of our own free will, but preordained in a sense that there is only one outcome

if free will does not exist than who controls our actions? i think we have the free will to do things if we truly believe that free will exists

if free will doesn't exist, then who said "someone" else has to control it.

I think free will exists in that when faced with a decision we get to choose to go down one path or the other. However, I think fate also exists in that when we have to make a decision we use our free will, but all decisions make up or destiny, and some decisions that we make are like detours and some are shortcuts, but they all lead to our same destiny which has been chosen for us.

but all decisions make up our** destiny

if we didn't have free will, then we wouldn't have the free will to make the decision of whether it exists or not. i don't think this question can be answered unless we find out if there is something controlling our destiny, and there is no true way to prove this.

I like to think we do have free will, but each choice leads us down a pre-determined path decided by possibility. If that's a little difficult to wrap your head around, think of life like a tree. You start at the roots, and work your way up as time passes. Each time you make a decision, you branch off the main trunk you are on, and progress closer to some final event. Of course, you can't go back, and there's a lot of "could haves" and "might have beens".

Also branching (heheheh) from that thought, some decisions, (like whether or not you have jam or peanut putter on your toast) will likely have no effect on your path. It might cause a bending in the branch, but not real differentiating.

But at the heart of it all, this is just my view.

this really ties in with the whole fate thing. I think that there is fate, so there is somethings that are going to happen without our free-will, but i also believe (like Mark) that there is a path but there are many roads you can take to get to the final stop (whatever has already been decieded). so, yes we have freewill but its limited....

just thought of something that ties in with the whole 'god's existance' thing. if a human isn't perfect, then how can we imagine something that is perfect? or maybe we can imagine something that is perfect, but isn't perfect for everyone.

or....does it???????? naw probably not

This question ofcourse relies on our beliefs of higher powers. I think that if there is a higher power we are probably not able to have free will, as they would be in charge of that. We might be able to choose small paths in life leading to our pre-determined destiny, but otherwise, what would be the point in having a higher power? They would have to have some sort of control in our lives,which would mean we really never have total free will. Clearly if we do not have a higher power then I think we have complete free will.

I believe that we have complete free will and we are able to make our own decisions within life's limits. I do not think that our actions are preordained by a higher power because we have the the ability to change our own future with every decision we make, and therefore our life could follow an infinite number of paths to reach this destiny of ours.

Truth could be the popular opinion. At least in some cases. You may have noticed Sara and I conversing about things on the homepage. One comment was that I said history is just the most commonly agreed upon set of lies. another example could be: 'History is written by the vicotrs." But history is just one aspect. I cannot think of any others at this time.

i think that it would be a good idea to share our findings Erik, seeing as we have similar topics.

i think that truth is always changed or adjusted to better fit the culture, time, society and all other factors. Who knows if in 500 years it will be a "true" fact that everything nowdays caused cancer? (werid example, I know). All I am saying is that the truth is always changing and so it must be popular belief.

From my last question, I found every answer to every question to be subjective,. The truth that exists could be popular opinion. Maybe that is why it is popular opinion.

knida ties into your question from before. We have freewill to have subjective decisions and opinions does it not?

math isn't popular opinion