Ian Fuqua

Mrs. Thomas
UWRT 1103
13 Mar. 2016
Do We Have Free Will?
Reflection: Finding the right inquiry question to write about was not easy. I finally chose to
focus on free will because it is not only something that really interests me but it is something that
is relevant to everyone and has plenty of subject matter to research and discuss. There is an
extremely wide variety of attitudes and ideas surrounding my question so I think it will be easy to
include different voices and perspectives in my paper. One challenge I think I have faced so far
and will face is taking this very complex question that has so many differing standpoints and
organizing it in a clear and captivating way in my writing.
The question of whether or not we have free will has been pondered amongst humans for
thousands of years. It is a very complex question that can be looked at in many different
perspectives. These perspectives include philosophical, religious, psychological and many
different scientific viewpoints such as cosmological determinism. I find this question to be very
important to me because it directly relates to my religious beliefs, my actions and basically my
entire existence. I want to answer this question so that I can make up my mind on whether I am
in complete control of myself or if I am simply a slave to my mind, body and the forces of the
universe.

Generally when we ask ourselves this question we often automatically get defensive and
try to reason with ourselves and each other to convince ourselves that we indeed do have free
will. At first it seems like a no brainer because if we are given the option between something
random like deciding to clap our hands or not it seems as if we can clearly chose between one or
the other and that we have full control over that choice. One of the first things that really brought
the idea of free will to my attention was a quote by Stephen Hawking that I read once that said,
I have noticed that even those who assert that everything is predestined and that we can change
nothing about it still look both ways before they cross the street. The thing that I found very
interesting about this quote is that if everything were predestined then even those who believed it
to be true would still not have control over choosing to look both ways before they cross the
street. They simply would not have the free will to choose whether or not they look both ways if
everything was already predestined. His observation is somewhat of a contradiction in itself.
I think asking ourselves this question is extremely important because it helps us
understand ourselves and the universe to a fuller extent. How we answer this question literally
pertains to everything we do. The words I am writing write now or the fact that I have waited
until the end of spring break to begin writing them is all a direct result of whether I have free will
or not. The problem with this question is that it contains many complicated variables and cannot
be easily proven one way or the other.
One reason that I have contemplated whether I have free will or not is because of my
religious views and how the two intertwine. As a Christian I believe God to be omniscient or allknowing. This means that by my definition of God he already knows everything that will happen
and that I will do. This brings up the question that if God already knows what I am going to do
then how is there any free will or choice to do something other than what he already knows I will

do. This question is asked by many people who believe God is omniscient and often times leads
them to believing either they do not have free will or God does not technically know everything.
I have always personally believed this to be a type of paradox where we somehow have free will
and God already knows which decisions I will make even though they are completely under my
control.
Whether or not we have free will is definitely something that can be researched in order
to gain a better understanding and a wider perspective. For example if I want to think about it in
a more religious way I can find verses in the bible that elaborate on free will and Gods
omniscience. If I want to get a better psychological and neurological understanding behind it
then I can research studies on the brain pertaining to what controls our thoughts and decisions. I
can even research physics and science to greater understand cause and effect in our universe and
how it relates to things like atoms and the randomness of their electrons and how that eventually
impacts our thoughts and actions. Ultimately, when looking at this question we can decide if we
are actually just preprogrammed robots where our thoughts are simply the effect of external and
internal causes or if we are more than just a brain with control and freedom.