WHY FREE WILL IS IMPORTANT
Over the last few years, a meme has developed: there is no free will; that “free will is an illusion.”
Free will is the “ability of agents to make choices unconstrained by certain factors.”
The principle of free will has religious, legal, ethical, and scientific implications.[1] For example, in the religious realm, free will implies that individual will and choices can coexist with an omnipotent divinity. In the law, it affects considerations of punishment and rehabilitation. In ethics, it may hold implications for whether individuals can be held morally accountable for their actions. In science, neuroscientific findings regarding free will may suggest different ways of predicting human behavior.
The articles below are only a few of the many attempting to make the case, both philosophically AND scientifically, that humans have no free will.
December 2011 – Is Free Will an Illusion?
January 2012 – Why you don’t really have Free Will
March 2012 – Free Will is an Illusion, but You are Still Responsible for Your Actions
May 2012 – Free Will is an Illusion. So What?
June 2012 – Free Will is an Illusion
January 2013 – Scientific evidence that you probably don’t have free will
July 2013 – Is Free Will just an Illusion?
July 2013 – You probably don’t have free will. But don’t worry about it
September 2013 – Life without Free Will
September 2013 – No, You Don’t Have Free Will and this is Why
September 2013 – Do You Really Have Free Will?
The Standard Argument Against Free Will
So what’s the big deal? Or, is it a big deal?
Whether humans have free will is a very big deal–for several very important reasons.
1 PRECRIME
If humans have no free will–if our actions are predetermined by biology for instance–then the science fiction notion of PRECRIME is a reality. The theory of “precrime” is that human behavior is so structured as to allow the prediction of individual behaviors–including criminal behaviors.
If criminal behavior can be reliably predicted–if there is no free will–then police, using computer algorithms or psychics (as in the movie “Minority Report“) or by whatever means, can arrest humans BEFORE the criminal behavior takes place and keep society safer.
This takes “crime” out of the realm of behavior and puts it into the realm of “who the person is.”
DUI laws have long paved the way for the precrime concept. The person who is stopped at a roadside checkpoint and arrested for driving while intoxicated has broken no other laws. The theory being that they are to be arrested BEFORE they get a chance to break a law, such as being involved in an accident.
As Driving Under the Influence laws have become stricter, it is no longer the stereotypical drunk who has been snared by DUI precrime. As the level of alcohol which triggers a crime has lowered, a person of small stature can be judged guilty after one drink or perhaps, only a partial drink.
This opens the door to “zero tolerance” laws where any alcohol in a person’s system–including the use of mouthwash–is judged to be a criminal action.
The entire DUI notion is built around precrime–the arrest of people based on the identification of their bodies’ blood alcohol content–NOT on any other criminal actions (running a stop sign, hitting a pedestrian, etc) they have yet committed.
If there is no free will, then the adoption of additional precrime statutes is one logical outcome.
2 CRIMINALIZATION OF BIOLOGY, NOT BEHAVIOR
If there is no free will, then a person’s destiny may be determined by their biology–a “crime gene” perhaps–instead of their behavior.
Criminal Genes and Criminal Brains
Genetic Basis for Crime: A New Look
IF this is true, then might not a “criminal class” be identified and actions taken against such a class for the “greater good of society“–BEFORE they commit crimes?
In Nazi Germany, Jews were identified as a “criminal class” and history records the actions that society instituted against the Jews once they were identified.
With the basic blueprint from Nazi Germany already in place, a modern state could kill millions quickly and efficiently, using the technological advances available–especially those that enable the state to identify and track individuals–since the 1940s.
If there is no free will, then the elimination of those labeled a “criminal class” can be justified as necessary; as there being no more effective way to deal with these criminals (who have not yet committed any crime other than belonging to the identified class).
The Bible in Revelation 13 details that refusing to take a mark of acceptance will identify a person as “guilty.”
“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
—Revelation 13:15-17
In the Revelation 13 scenario, for a person to be judged “guilty,” all that would have to happen is for the person to refuse to take the mark.
Under the evil gene scenario, the identification of a particular gene would be a death sentence. All that would be necessary is for the state to demonstrate that an individual has the designated gene and the person would be “guilty.”
The state could then quickly and efficiently assign punishment for the “crime-in-waiting.”
3 IF THERE WERE NO FREE WILL, THERE COULD BE NO CONSEQUENCE TO SIN
The Bible says that man is a free moral agent.
This is backed up by scripture. There are 23 verses in the Bible which use the word “willingly” to mean that a choice was or will be made.
“Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;”
—1 Peter 5:2
” But without thy mind would I do nothing; that thy benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly”
—Philemon 1:14
“For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,”
—Hebrews 10:26
Can a holy and righteous God judge a person who does not have free will? How can a righteous judge sentence a person who is not in control of his own behavior?
He can’t.
If you believe the Bible, you must accept the concept of free will. One way to circumvent the Bible’s teachings would be to question the idea of “free will.”
That humans possess free will and are able to make choices between right and wrong actions is one of the basic foundations of biblical Christianity.
Which, one suspects, is one of the prime reasons for this “debate,” as well as the sudden influx of “scientific information” questioning the existence of free will.
As the world slips further into end times deception, every Biblical truth is a candidate for questioning and mockery.
One suspects that this is the essence of this recent debate over whether man possesses “free will.”
Related articles
- What The−? Minority Report (thesectorm.wordpress.com)
- Do You Know if You are Going to Heaven? Be Sure!
- TSA Knows All About You (mountainrepublic.net)
- New Pre-K Study Emphasizes Long-term Positive Effects on Graduation, Employment and Criminal Behavior (lawprofessors.typepad.com)
- FREE WILL (cuttingedge.org)
- UK Using Computers to Predict Crime (CraigPeterson.com)
- What We Can Learn By Sci-Fi Flicks (talkbychance.wordpress.com)
- What We Can Learn By Sci-Fi Flicks (asiembhaskar.wordpress.com)
- Demons, Free Will and OCD (frted.wordpress.com)
- Eternal Salvation Through Jesus Christ: Salvation Messages from End Times Prophecy Report
by Jeremiah J. Jameson
© Jeremiah J. Jameson and End Times Prophecy Report, 2012-13. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Jeremiah J. Jameson and End Times Prophecy Report with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
End Times Prophecy Report 
Uh, tell me about it. I didn’t know that it was such a topic in general, but I have a story to tell about it in religion. Now I have always believed in both freewill and predestination because they are both in the bible. I don’t know the science behind it, but somehow they mesh. I have a list of websites including yours that I peruse almost daily. As always there are a few things here and there I disagree with, usually minor, but surely we all do that. So there is one site where they have a mix of news items and sermonettes. These are usually really good, talking about livng a holy life, etc. There are a few links I have a problem with, I have warned the fellow about it, but to no avail. Well lately he seems bent in certain directions and it seems that unconditional eternal security and election without our will involved seem to be ‘the order of the day.’ So when I left comments I usually indicated why I believe freewill (etc.) are biblical and include a verse (such as Joshua 24; 15 where people are told to choose, well they can’t choose if they have no choice and there is no choice without freewill). Anyway, shortly thereafter he posted a piece and at the end stated that ‘people who hold to freewill [as having any role at all] are hellbound’ and stuff like that. He has calvinist links [on CRN]but I would never think he would think such a thing. I could say the same thing in the other direction about calvinists (and did so) but of course this is not an issue of salvation like the crucifixion, etc. I was stunned! Anyway so then I went on another site [suftt] and they mentioned that some were saying the 21 slain by isis may not have all been saved and the lack of grace etc. and well who knows and I know they are trying to get people to drop barriers for the one world religion and stuff. So I proceeded to cite my example of people truly being ‘too harsh’ and while they posted the other comments (you can only fit a chunk at a time so I do a series), they deleted that one. It was as if the same fellow was editing the comments! Anyway I figured I would get some understanding on here so I am sharing that with you. I don’t hold to eternal security either. There is so much in the bible that goes against all they dish out as the ‘approved script’. Bereans will know better.
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Blessings!
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