Spiritually speaking: Does the existence of consequences to any action negate the concept of a 'free' will? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Obviously not. The consequences of killing someone is either death or prison, but that still happens all the time. The choice is yours to commit the act and face those consequences, or not to.

Answer 2

No. When people are talking about free will, they aren't talking about actions in defiance of Newton's third law. Free will is a question of whether an individual is acting without the constraint of necessity or fate. If you get up and walk across the room, is that something done ultimately of your own volition or something only giving that illusion, an inevitability of your brain chemistry. It isn't a question of "free" energy. Whether the action is predetermined or not, I think both recognize that it burns calories, moves molecules, etc.

Answer 3

I think not (free will can co-exist with consequences.) Both are related to the idea that there is more than one possible choice to be made.

Answer 4

Of course not. If every action had the same consequence, free will would be irrelevant.

Answer 5

I have freedom to choose a bad consequence or a good consequence.

If I eat junk food and don't exercise, I gain weight. I shouldn't only consider it freedom if I don't know if I will gain weight or not. That type of uncertainty in society would drive us all crazy.

Answer 6

That doesn't even come close to making sense. There's also that thing called "intelligence." If you're told that napping on the railroad track is dangerous, whose fault is it when they pick you up in pieces?

Source(s): Greek Orthodox Christian

Answer 7

Yes, it does. That's known as determinism where current and future events and frameworks are the result of causality created by prior events and frameworks.

Answer 8

No. But it limits the concept to freedom of the WILL. We can want what we choose to want. We don't necessarily control the consequences.

I cannot flap my arms and fly to the moon. But if I chose, I could try--at least, until someone got me locked in a padded cell to keep me from hurting myself.

Answer 9

NO....PEOPLE WHO commit crimes can still get caught...