From former pastor, current atheist, Bruce Gerencser:
I have written almost three thousand posts since December 2014, and not one of them dealt with the subject of free will. The reason for this is two-fold: first, discussions on free will always bring more heat than light, and second, I am not really certain what it is I believe about the matter. I continue to read and study the various leading voices on free will, but so far, I am not convinced one way or the other. That said, you did ask me if I believed in free will, so I will take a stab at answering it based on what I presently think on the matter.
When I look at the decisions I make day-in and day-out, it seems to me that I have free will. I am willingly and freely answering this question. Now, that does not mean that I was not influenced by outside forces or personal behavioral patterns. I have OCPD, so I crave order. I hate leaving things undone. I asked for questions all the way back in July and here I am still answering them. My mind is telling me, get it done, Bruce. Do it now. Henriette deserves an answer. Don’t delay. I also like pleasing others. I want to be well thought of, so it’s important to me answer this question. I also want this blog to be place where doubting Evangelicals can come to find answers to their questions and encouragement as they wrestle with what it is they actually believe. All of these things pressure (influence) me, leading me to take time tonight to answer this question. Yes, I am doing so FREELY, but not without influence.
I’m still waiting for a definition of free will that (1) makes the concept coherent and (2) maintains the determinism/free will division.
Bruce writes, “Yes, I am doing so FREELY, but not without influence.”
What would it mean to do something without environmental or genetic influences? Even our simplest decisions do not arise from the void. If I decide to make a sandwich, it is based on a set of desires (hunger, desire for a particular food, desire to avoid the inconvenience of making a different lunch, etc.) and beliefs that came to be as a result of prior causes rather than my somehow willing them into existence. Even the idea of intentionally willing something into existence implies a pre-existing desire, which must have come from somewhere, to do the willing.
Accordingly, I see no reason to believe in the sort of free will that people usually describe. What does that mean in practice? Not much. We still live in a universe with apparent quantum randomness, which implies some minor form of indeterminism, and our universe is so unimaginably complex that complete and accurate foresight is impossible even if it is deterministic. Since we don’t know the future and we are still creatures whose brains present the illusion of choice, we still must go through the motions. But dismissing incoherent notions of free will that imagine us as beings divorced from the physical world and even causality can humble us and lead us to have more realistic expectations of ourselves and others. It’s just difficult to bear in mind in our daily activities.
Bruce writes, “I CHOSE to stop believing.”
This belief is even stranger to me. I believe what I am convinced is true. Whether or not I am convinced is not a choice I make, but (ideally) a matter of evidence meeting or not meeting my standards for truth or likelihood. In some regrettable cases, it may come down to how the belief makes me feel (or how I feel about the consequences of believing it) or if it fits into a set of existing beliefs that were never properly scrutinized. (Religious beliefs, which can involve the emotions associated with salvation, righteousness, etc. and are often taught from childhood by family and trusted friends and authority figures, tend to fall under both categories.) In any case, I never think about something and say, “No, I don’t think I’ll believe that today.”