Thread: Choice or force?

we choose what we'd be forced to do anyway.

Originally posted by mongreloctopus
we choose what we'd be forced to do anyway.

Big question is how do you know when making choices that you aren't being forced into a path? Another way to also think of what I'm asking is how much free will do we really have in our everyday lives?

I'm going back to bed, but I'll try to get another example and that is basically when I made the topic you replied to the topic. In someways it was because of my own action that you were forced to reply. Of course nobody had to reply to a topic, but from the force of the orginal event a choice was made. Then in a sense when you replied to my topic I was forced to responde with a reply. Even though I was the orginal poster I was still forced to make a choice because of the open dialog we are having now. I just got to thinking about how we live in the digital age and our choices become different then that in real life. I wonder what others also think. I'll try to check in on this topic when I can.

well, my opinion is that everything that one does is based on some kind of previous experience or lack thereof. further more, i think everything that happens that has nothing to do with personal choices (weather, stock market, etc) is also based on past happenings. our illusion of free will is based on our inability to see the whole picture, as it were. it's like a choose your own adventure book, where when you look back at the choices you made, you realize they were the only ones that existed.

That explains some things, but leaves huge gaps in other places. There is undeniably SOME degree of inborn tendency. Depression, for example, tends to run in family lines, and disrupts the way depressed people act. It isn't likely to be a learned behavior from their parents, since it's been known to skip two or three generations before appearing again.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

I consider that our present sufferings are not worthy being compared with the glory that will be revealed in us.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I cry to you my Lord, my rock! Do not be deaf to me, for if you are silent, I shall go down to the pit like the rest. Hear my voice raised in petition as I cry to you for help, as I raise my hands, my
Lord, toward your holy of holies.
The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Go now Sons of God. Fulfill your Destiny!
Praise the Lord! Amen!

Originally posted by Tsen
That explains some things, but leaves huge gaps in other places. There is undeniably SOME degree of inborn tendency. Depression, for example, tends to run in family lines, and disrupts the way depressed people act. It isn't likely to be a learned behavior from their parents, since it's been known to skip two or three generations before appearing again.

sure, but heredity factors in the same as experience. it's still part of the cause - effect concept, and solidifies further that notion that we are trapped and don't even know it.

Originally posted by AHiddenSaint
Do you choice the path of your own life or were you forced down that path? If you did have a choice in your path then what happen when those choices you made created forces? When you made your choice did you force others to choose as well or did others force you to choose? How much choice do we have and did I just force you to read my thoughts?

Actually, it would take a bit more style for your writing to be as compelling as you would suppose.

It doesn't matter whether or not we're forced down our path, as long as we don't know the answer, it still remains a mysterious journey. As long as we're aware of causes and effects of things, we can weave around some forces, but there will always be those scientific laws that we can't transcend from.

I believe one does never have to follow a certain path. I'm following a path right now, altough I don't like it. I do have the power to leave it and take another. But I believe my current path is best for my future, so I will keep walking it, unless something can convince me to leave it.

Odds said it best: It hardly matters whether we're forced or we have free will, so long as we don't know the answer.

It doesn't matter if we're trapped without knowing so long as we really don't know. As long as you don't realize you're imprisoned, you in truth aren't imprisoned at all.

As long as i'm forced to have the illusion of choice (whether imposed upon me by a deceiving puppetmaster, or the truth itself) i shall not trouble myself to care...

We certainly choose, it's just that our choices are a result of forces.

Unless of course they're uncaused(random). Though it certainly doesn't seem like our choices are uncaused.

Then there's the possibility that nothing is caused and it's the nature of our consciousness to view things as extremely ordered when in reality they're just random flashes of perception.

Who really knows?