I am wondering if I am the only one that is completely baffled by this debate over free will versus determinism. For so long we have been told that beside from a higher being, God, that we had free will. "You can be anything you want when you grow up." If determinism is true, then this statement is not true. It has already been determined that you will be a doctor, an author, or a heroin addict. How can we expect anyone to take responsibility for any of their decisions if they can always use the fact that they didn't have a choice, since it was already determined that they would do it.
I understand that there has to be some kind of determinism, if there wasn't then we would not know if the sun was coming up tomorrow. And I do not believe that any of our choices are completely of our own free will. There are too many factors that impact us. Honestly I am not sure if a person would know what to do if they were not impacted by the society, people, and environment around them.
But, if we still can not find a concrete reason for everything, isn't complete determinism at least questionable. As the article we read stated, there are so many theories that are being proven false and new theories are being established, how can anyone be certain of either side of this argument as being the absolute answer to any of these questions?
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Absolutes will prove elusive, here as elsewhere in life. But this is certainly a "baffling," long-lived, and challenging philosophical debate.
One (hopeful) suggestion: even if the future is determined by the present state of the universe, it is by no means predictable. Whatever it will be, it will no doubt surprise us.
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