Free Will - The Most Important Questions
Do you have it? Do you use it?
The most important question we face is do we have free will. Can we choose what we will do? If we can choose, should we choose differently? If we cannot choose, what is the point of life? If we have free will, do we use it?
Dualism is out of favor among academics. Dualism is the idea that a spiritual realm exists separate from the physical realm. Monism is the idea that there is only one realm.
Karl Popper pointed out that science is the pursuit of falsification. We can never know that something is true. We believe the sun will rise in the east tomorrow. Based on our experience, it always has. If the sun rose in the west, that would falsify the idea that the sun rises in the east and we could discard it.
Religion, on the other hand, cannot be falsified. No matter how much evidence is presented, the religious follower will deny the evidence and hold to the belief. Faith is necessary. Falsification is impossible and therefore religion is not science.
I didn’t know about Popper and falsification until about twenty years ago. I immediately recognized the idea. In healthcare we set up two groups. Nothing is done to the control group. The experimental group gets a treatment. What we try to do is falsify the null hypothesis - there is no difference between the two groups. We use statistics to perform the falsification. If the null hypothesis is falsified, that is used as proof that the treatment is beneficial. The treatment doesn’t have to work for every patient. It just has to be statistically better than no treatment.
Science is science because we can use falsification. Religion is not science because we can never prove anything false.
In his book, In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat, John Gribbin gave the question physicists have been ducking since the time of Newton - is the universe determined? By determined it is meant that we could predict the future.
Newton discovered three laws of motion. 1. Inertia - an object at rest remains at rest and an object in motion remains in motion in a straight line unless acted upon by an outside force. 2. Force equals mass times acceleration. 3. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. According to Newton’s laws, if we knew the position and velocity of every particle in the universe, we could predict where the particles would be in the future.
The theory of evolution starts with the physical realm. Particles interact and one day life materializes. Life continues to change based on physical forces.
Now combine evolution with Newton’s laws and we arrive at no free will. You and I may think that we make choices, but the scientific explanation is that we do not. Where does the force come from to cause a change in the brain? If we say spirit, we are not being scientific because we cannot falsify the spiritual realm. We are left with changes in the brain happen because of environmental forces.
We see, hear, feel, smell, and taste because of forces acting on us. Those forces cause the changes in the brain. The forces are in control.
Neuroscience supports the idea that we are not in control. Donald Hoffman says that, based on a brain scan, a neuroscientist can predict a subject’s choices up to seven seconds before it is made. I encourage you to watch his video.
Hoffman points out that dualism is not in favor among academics. Then he says that reality is consciousness. He starts with a conscious agent - free will. He says that nothing exists until it is created by a conscious agent.
I prefer dualism. Can we be bold enough to say that I (spirit) change my brain in preparation for making the choice? Can scientists accept free will as falsification for at least one aspect of science?
The idea of free will is fundamental to society. Near the end of the video, Hoffman quotes the Supreme Court, “To deny free will is ‘inconsistent with the underlying principles of our criminal justice system’.”
I go a step further. I believe we can also fail to use our will. We can just allow our neural programming to run. We can lead determined lives. Those who have lost their spiz (spizzerinctum) do just that.
Do you believe you have free will? If so, prove it by changing your mind about something.