”Does man have a free will?”

was what Atle was pondering about while running in the evening. The air was humid (100 % humidity?) and hot (more than 34 degrees for sure). Even before running while putting on shorts and shirt his body got soaking wet.

Running is kind of easy when you have started. You lift you back foot, moves it forward, and suddenly your back foot is your front foot. If you don’t do this foot interchange while moving on you will fall, and who wants to fall and make a mess out of everything? Maybe someone is watching, too?

The question about having a free will concerning running is a practical one, NOT a theoretical one. There is action involved. At least that is what is Atle’s opinion. All actions have a start and a practical output. As for starting running and finishing running Atle thinks his free will is involved, but while running one foot is put in front of the other automatically. No will is involved at all.

Does that go for other actions as well?

As for himself Atle WANTS very much to have a free will, to be able to choose without anyone pushing him. He likes to imagine his free will is balancing on top a fulcrum and that it is only up to him which side will go up or down.. But is it so?

Some examples from real life:

1. Someone hits you from the back. It hurts!!! You hit back without thinking. Where is the free will?
2. You eat your food – it tastes terrible, and you stop eating automatically. Where is the free will? You force yourself to eat in spite of the bad taste – now may be your free will is present. But Atle guesses you eat because you are hungry, or because you want to be polite, or because of  mulltiple other reasons.
3. You want to fly using your free will. You cannot because of gravity. Your free will cannot abolish the laws of nature.
4. You come to a crossroads. You don’t know if you are to go left or right. You make a haphazard choice and go right. Where is the free will when you choose haphazardly? Or may be it is only when you choose haphazardly that the free will is involved, when there is nothing that pushes you in one or another direction?

Look at the problem ”does man have a free will?” this way. Why is it important if we have a free will or not? Is it to distinguish us from all the ”lower” creatures in this world, that is all other living species except homo sapiens sapiens (the religious point of view)? Is it about responsibility for our actions (the legal point of view)?

While Atle is pondering about this he suddenly realizes that his running feet has brought him back home. Soaking wet! Time for a cold shower. His head feels overheated. The cold shower in the tropics, however, is not really cold.

More about free will on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_will