From Nan’s Notebook:
What is “free will”? Psychology Today describes it thus:
Free will is the idea that humans have the ability to make their own choices and determine their own fates.
It follows up with this question:
Is a person’s will free, or are people’s lives in fact shaped by powers outside of their control?
Personally, I lean towards the second part of the above question –that we are influenced by things outside of our control– and I explain why below. I’ve shared my perspective on a couple of blogs and the responses have been … well, interesting.
Here are my thoughts …
All we have is NOW. The past is gone; the future has not yet arrived. We cannot change what has already happened any more than we can control what will come. We can learn from the past and use this knowledge in an attempt to modify our future, but essentially, we have no control over even the next second. It is only in our minds that either has substance.
Thus, in essence, we are simply pawns of time.