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Free will, along with human nature, is the second characteristic possessed by human beings that affects the way humankind functions.

Free will, the choice is yours. Yes, but certainly not in all cases. This affects how humans function.

Free will, the choice is yours. Yes, but certainly not in all cases. This affects how humans function.

Free will, the ability to choose and freely make decisions endows each human being. It is the second factor necessary to understand if you want to know how humankind functions. We all possess this trait, but because of our circumstances, we cannot always exercise our free will.
(Audit of Humankind, chapter 2.5)

Question: When parents have a baby, do they know what that baby will become 20, 40 years down the line? Put another way, do dad and mom know what will become of their offspring in 30, 50 years?

I’m not saying they don’t have wishes and desires, sure they do, but is that baby’s future pre-determined or is its life shaped and carved out by nature and nurture and its own choices?

We saw from the previous chapter—the singularity of humankind—that each person can clearly take an infinite number of directions, including venturing into good and bad and everywhere in between. Somehow there’s both an upward AND a downward pull on each of us. Some go one way, others the other way—we are all subject to decisions and course changes in our lives hopefully, often for our benefit but unfortunately sometimes for trying times. Education, encounters, travel, profession, leisure, reading, mates… and many other influences are such that various ways are open to us.

Free will, the ability to freely choose endows each human being. It is the 2nd factor to understand to know how humankind functions. We all possess it but due to circumstances, we cannot always exercise our free will. Click To Tweet

Humans make decisions – that’s one of our distinctive characteristics

It is impossible to know in advance what decisions someone will make; it is impossible in advance to determine what an individual’s outcome will be even tomorrow, let alone in a few years or a lifetime.

How does the mind puzzle piece fit together with the free will puzzle piece? Some bigger issues today are: sex, guns, words, medicine—and HOW they are used. Well, these and many other things are not inherently wrong but the point is sex, guns words and medicine are the VISIBLE EXTENSIONS of what has taken place in the mind. It is in the mind that a decision is made about HOW one opts to use sex, guns, words, medicine or any one of a myriad of other items—properly or improperly—it’s a free will choice.

Yes, there are outside nature and nurture influences embedded within us, even some very compelling ones indeed, but ultimately we can follow or buck the system. The latter can take a lot of self-sacrifice, courage, and fortitude… and not just a few make that choice. Hat’s off to those that follow their newfound convictions. Another person turning a free will decision made in their mind into an action plan to make a direction change in their life.

Individuality

Each of us has a mind of his/her own. I write that in the singular because no two of us, even if you are fraternal twins, are identical. Yes, we are influenced by our parents, the physical and psychological environment of our upbringing, the social surroundings in which we grew up. But, at the same time each became autonomous, each had a certain amount of freedom and independence to become an individual, one, of 7 billion individuals, that walks the face of this planet today.

Your uniqueness was and is driven by your free will that has made you into the distinct character and personality you are at this instant in your existence. The character and personality you will become will be based on the experiences you will orchestrate, and that life will orchestrate for you, in a year and 5 years from now.

Yes, each of us is subject to the ups and downs of life, the accidents of life over which we have no control and even no say: like the sickness or even sudden death of a loved one, the upheavals of life like an earthquake or tornado. As you know, different people react in their own personal ways to the same situations.

Each person plays out their tragedy or comedy according to the liberty, coupled with the fetters, of their own mind and thought processes. One will submit to and even become chained to the obsessions of obesity, while another will overcome and remove the shackles to regain order in her life. One will keel over into depression at the loss of a girlfriend or boyfriend, another will learn to move on and find greener pastures. No circumstances and influences are identical, 2 people, 2 outcomes, 99 people, 99 outcomes. That’s free will, that’s why no one can know and predict where the 2, the 99 or the 7 billion will be down the road from now.

No circumstances and influences are identical, 2 people 2 outcomes, 99 people, 99 outcomes. That’s free will, that’s why no one can know and predict where the 2, the 99 or the 7 billion will be down the road from now. Click To Tweet

Remember the fundamental question behind The Explanation?—How would you bring peace and prosperity to Earth?

Well—to complicate matters—you’re working with individuals that are endowed with free will. That means, you can tell them whatever you want, you can even coerce them into doing certain things like only crossing a street when the light is green, but, when your back is turned, and even right in front of you, they have the free will to cross the road no matter what the color of the light is.

You and I cannot take that free will away from anyone. If a person has a sane mind, maybe you can impose a physical way of life, like a professional code of ethics at work, but you can’t impose it on their minds—when they leave the office, they could have a totally unbridled lifestyle. I’m thinking of the French or other Resistance members during WWII. They had to respect curfews and other impositions that were enforced on them but they were free to think of ways to get around and even oppose those obligations.

They exercised their free will for liberation while others in the same situation exercised their free will to succumb to those obligations. Free will allowed acquiescing parties to justify what the enemy was doing, even to mingle with them and obtain rewards. Free will allowed yet others—the scared, doubtful, maybe weaker elements—to obey the injunctions while hating the enemy and wishing for freedom but not taking any action.

Free will permits each individual to concoct creative thoughts, devise unique arguments and make personal decisions of and by themselves. It is understood that this free will acts within each person’s parameters of nature and nurture.

This is one of the invisible yet, oh so present puzzle pieces we have to reckon with while establishing peace and prosperity on Earth. Not an easy undertaking, right?

Galacti, having thoughtfully followed this line of reasoning pipes up, “So, you Sam, as the author of The Explanation, take a definitive stance in saying that each and every one of us definitely possesses free will.” “Yes, we have and can make choices with regard to our decisions. I’m not saying that there aren’t decisions that are made for us and that we must follow, but I’m saying each of us is a free agent that can lead and give impetus to their own lives.”

I’m not saying it’s easy, and that everyone has the courage to make free choice decisions. Some, like refugees, make the free choice to leave their home countries, lose their lives in transit while others bear the burden and knuckle under. Free choice comes in all shapes, sizes, and forms—each of us is equipped with this attribution. It‘s even up to each of us as to whether or how we will exercise our free will.

I will say that what I’ve written about free will is far from exhaustive and we shall return to this subject. In my next book, Origin of the Universe, I shall explain WHY we have free will, in fact, why we MUST be endowed with free will and why we must exercise our free will. We will also broach such delicate questions of why some have never had the opportunity of fully exercising their free will during their lifetime.

For instance, babies or youngsters who unfortunately have premature deaths, people who are maimed and even killed in accidents or physically forced into situations like having to flee a city because of terrorism or are murdered by crazed and drunken individuals or troops. There are umpteen circumstances that do prevent many people from exercising their faculty of free will. Not only will I discuss why human beings have the privilege of free will, but what happens to those who did not have the opportunity to exercise their free will—for whatever reason.

What about the feeble, influenceable people who are too weak to take their own stance? Those too fragile to stand up for their own opinions and beliefs? Too faint of physical body and or psychological mind, whether it be because of health or age (young teens unsure of the future or seniors with their capacities diminished by age) to withstand the imposition of strong hand methods on them.

After all, they too are human beings and they too should be able to walk through the door to peace and prosperity that all human beings aspire to. We’re all in this boat together, human beings, past, present and future. That is peace and prosperity individually and collectively with the opportunity for everyone to choose that direction.

This blog post is an excerpt from chapter 2.4 of Audit of the Humankind.

 

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