Do You Have Free Will?

Think of yourself as a ball rolling down a hill. The hill represents the path of your life. The size and shape of the ball represent your biology and body. As the ball rolls, the terrain is smooth, rough, and there are obstacles and opportunities everywhere.

The quality of the landscape speaks to both cause and effect, and these affect your trajectory. When a causal force alters your journey, it results in you making a decision. All of the decisions you make are a response to external stimuli. What does this mean, and how does it speak to free will?

What if you came to realize that free will does not exist? Would it perturb you? Would you try and prove me wrong by doing something random and out of character? Would you have performed this random act if I didn't pose the question in the first place?

Am I just part of your terrain, or are you part of mine? Could it be that both are true? You wouldn't have tried (or thought) that random stuff above were you not spurred on by my question. And I wouldn't have written this if I didn't think you would read it.

This idea can be infectious, disturbing, and somewhat hard to shake. One might even go so far as to say; that it could plague you, kind of like the Mandela effect. Most people won't pay it no never mind, and to be quite honest, that might be for the better.

You see, your current trajectory and the terrain you've already experienced and are currently experiencing, along with your biology and body, will no doubt determine if these questions or ideas sit well with you or for how long they sit at all.

Does the notion of a lack of free will disturb you, or is it liberating? Do we have free will when we experience a movie from start to finish? Or perhaps we sit down and suspend our disbelief for just long enough to identify with and almost become the main character.