Free will is an illusion. Our wills are simply not of our own making. Thoughts and intentions emerge from background causes of which we are unaware and over which we exert no conscious control. We do not have the freedom we think we have.

Free will, in humans, the power or capacity to choose among alternatives or to act in certain situations independently of natural, social, or divine restraints.

At least since the Enlightenment, in the 18th century, one of the most central questions of human existence has been whether we have free will. In the late 20th century, some thought neuroscience had settled the question. However, as it has recently become clear, such was not the case.

Determinism is incompatible with free will and moral responsibility because determinism is incompatible with the ability to do otherwise. Since determinism is a thesis about what must happen in the future given the actual past, determinism is consistent with the future being different given a different past.

Van Inwagen thinks that it does. He defends the view that free will is, despite the compatibilist’s best efforts, genuinely in conflict with the possibility of free will. He says: “…compatibilists can make their doctrine seem like robust common sense only by sweeping a mystery under the carpet …

Free will is generally understood as the ability to freely choose our own actions and determine our own outcomes. Believing in free will helps people exert control over their actions. This is particularly important in helping people make better decisions and behave more virtuously.

In regards to the relationship between free will and moral responsibility, if an agent does not have free will then the agent is not morally responsible for his/her actions. If a person was forced to steal a car, that person is not morally responsible because it was not an action of free will.

Dan Wegner

Free Will is a 2012 book by the American neuroscientist Sam Harris. It argues that free will is an illusion, but that this does not undermine morality or diminish the importance of political and social freedom, and that it can and should change the way we think about some of the most important questions in life.

1 : voluntary choice or decision I do this of my own free will. 2 : freedom of humans to make choices that are not determined by prior causes or by divine intervention.

Christians believe that God gave humans free will. This is the ability for humans to make their own decisions. It means that although God made a world and it was good , it is up to humans whether they choose to do good or bad deeds.

A free choice presumes the existence of choices. Free will presumes the ability to make some kind of choice and the ability to reify that choice. Thus, the two are not the same, but do have an inseparable relationship to each other. Free will is the ability to make choices.