Free Will As An Illusion

Philosophically, FREE WILL is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action unimpeded.

Free will is closely linked to the concepts of moral responsibility, praise, guilt, sin, and other judgements which apply only to actions that are freely chosen. It is also connected with the concepts of advice, persuasion, deliberation, and prohibition. 

Traditionally, only actions that are freely willed are seen as deserving credit or blame. Whether free will exists, what it is and the implications of whether it exists or not are some of the longest running debates of philosophy and religion.

Some conceive free will to be the capacity to make choices in which the outcome has not been determined by past events. Determinism suggests that only one course of events is possible, which is inconsistent with the existence of free will thus conceived. Ancient Greek philosophy identified this issue, which remains a major focus of philosophical debate.   SOURCE:  Wikipedia

Yes, it is true that mankind can and does make decisions every day and we assume that those decisions are independent of all the forces that are interacting within and around individuals like:

• family beliefs
• society beliefs
• personal beliefs
• work beliefs
• spiritual beliefs

AND THEN...   there is the notion of BIRTH and the fact that there was NO FREE WILL when it came to being born.

ALSO...  there is NO FREE WILL when it comes to TIME and how fast or slow that time moves or that time only moves forward.

HOWEVER and only for some of us...  there is this concept of GOD's WILL being done ON EARTH as it is being done IN HEAVEN.

FINALLY...  we see that JESUS had no FREE WILL once he committed himself to HIS FATHER'S WILL, allowing his own crucifixion for our sins.  One could argue that Jesus was a GOD and therefore felt no pain or that GOD absorbed his pain so that all he did was just die.

If we do not have control over our own birth and we don not have control over our own death, then what type of control do we really have over our lives which in part are fashioned and molded by time?

ALL OF MY ACTIONS will not be completely determined until years from now because of the influence or lack of influence that I have had over other people...  as well as their interactions and the various interaction of those interactions.

ONE CHANGE could alter millions of subsequent actions and reactions with but mostly without our knowledge...  so, is it our will that we manipulate or is it manipulated by something or someone else?