Many a time I have found myself stuck with the simple question of “do we have free will?” If you ponder it hard enough (and know enough chemistry/physics/biology/philosophy) it can be a rather hard, even impossible question to answer. For many years I was in the category of “yes we have free will” and as the years have gone by this wall of free will seems to have been slowly eroded. I am not really sure anymore just how “free” our free will is.
The basic argument comes down to the brain. Is the brain simply a machine like any other, reacting blinding (although in a fascinatingly complex manner) to stimuli. Have we been put together by millions of years of natural selection and really only suffer under the illusion of free will. I choose X and not Y because my brain is set up in such a way that I was always going to choose X. Or are we able to truly take in all stimulus from our environment and then make a choice? I choose X and not Y because I want to. Is there any difference?