Free Will
Is there free will? The argument for it would say that yes, there is, because you chose to go to this website out of your own free will. However, there is an alternative. Think of it this way: Your life is a ripple on a pond. Every action you take, everything you choose to do, affects all of the other ripples on the pond, who in turn affect all of THOSE ripples. With this analogy in mind, it could be assumed logically that a person is only the sum of their ripples; an inexorable number that's next in the sequence. Or you could think of every human as a different element, where each element differs depending on how it came into being, the conditions it has been under and any changes it might have gone through. This history would serve as a way to determine how the element reacts, right? Given that an alkali metal has gone through what an alkali metal has gone through, if you throw it in water it'll get pissed off. Why the personification? Well that's just it. How we react to different circumstances, what we decide to do; they're all just reactions. If you decide not to have a coke tomorrow and stick with sprite, that's not a decision--it's inevitability. Free will, or the notion of it, seems to be just like christianity in that it's immensely popular because of the comfort it gives a person, and where christianity provides the solace of heaven to look forward to and an all-powerful
father that loves you, free will provides the comforting illusion that you're in control your life.