Discussion on "Free will"

Two friends suddenly meet on the road and start their conversation.
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1st friend: Hey buddy, what's up bro?
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2nd friend: Yeah fine! What about you dude?
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1st friend: Same here. Well, I want to ask you something. Do you know about our own slavery?
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2nd friend: Yeah, that's a great problem for the modern world. Though slavery is against human rights, yet today we can find in many countries the slave people who are captured and being tortured often.
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1st friend: No, no, my friend. I am not saying about that slavery. I am talking about the slavery of our inside existence!
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2nd friend: What do you mean actually?
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1st friend: I am trying to say, people who think that they are free, are not actually free. They are the slaves of something, because slavery is our nature by birth.
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2nd friend: What do you want to say? Make it clear please!
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1st friend: Okay, I am trying to help you for understanding.
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2nd friend: Okay.
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1st friend: Most of the people are the slaves of their own mind. Suppose, a boy finds a beautiful girl walking infront of him. What will he do generallly?
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2nd friend: He will look at that girl!!😀
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1st friend: hahaha, yeah you are right. But why he will look at her?
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2nd friend: Because he wants to see how the girl looks like! 😀
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1st friend: If nobody is with that boy, then who tells him to look at that girl?
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2nd friend: 🤔🤔🤔.... If nobody tells the boy to look at that girl, then the boy willingly chooses to look at her!! Isn't it?
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1st friend: Right. In other words, we can say, his own mind suggests him to look at that girl. And the boy blindly follows his mind's suggestion.
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2nd friend: Right!
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1st friend: But doesn't that boy have the power to control his eye-sight?
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2nd friend: Sure, why not!
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1st friend: So it means, that boy has submitted himself to his own mind. Isn't it?
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2nd friend: Well, that means, you are saying, that boy is the slave of his own mind?
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1st friend: Exactly.
Same is the case for any girl. When a girl goes to any place out of home, she generally wants to beuatify herself because she likes to do that as she wants, other people will see her and praise her beauty. Her mind suggests such behaviour and she chooses to follow it without any hesitation.
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2nd friend: Hmm...
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1st friend: But if you ask her about it, she may reply, "Other people are also showing such outlook, so why it will be wrong! This is the modern culture, you know!"
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2nd friend: But if other people are doing the same thing and if we follow them, is it wrong?
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1st friend: It can be both right and wrong!
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2nd friend: What do you mean?
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1st friend: Suppose, I will give a stranger 2 dollar and again 2 dollar. Then I ask him to return me 5 dollar. Will he give me the 5 dollar??
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2nd friend: No, we all know that 2+2=4, it is not 5.
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1st friend: Now suppose, you have 50 people infront of you. Among those 50 persons, 40 people say that 2+2=5 and 10 people say that 2+2=4, now whom will you support?
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2nd friend: Of course those 10 persons who said that 2+2=4.
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1st friend: Why?
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2nd friend: Because I know that these 10 people are correct!
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1st friend: But 40 people who are the majority said that 2+2=5. So why don't you follow them?
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2nd friend: Because I have judged the truth by myself and I can realise the correct calculation.
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1st friend: Well done! This is my point. It does not mean that what the majority of people are doing will always be correct. It can be correct, it can be wrong. You have to judge yourself what is the correct way!
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2nd friend: Hmm..
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1st friend: But most of the people do not judge the true path. Either they follow their mind's suggestion or they follow their ancestors, friends, celebrities and so on blindly.
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2nd friend: Now I understandard. That means most of the people are in the slavery of their mind and salvery of the other people!
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1st friend: Yeah! Most of the time, male are in the slavery of female;
rich are in the slavery of money and wealth;
musicians and singers are in the slavery of music;
harlots are in the slavery of sexual desire;
desirous people are in the slavery of preposterous deities[1] and so on.
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2nd friend: But you said a few minutes ago that slavery is our nature by birth! Then should we be blamed for it???
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1st friend: By birth, each of us remains a slave, but not the slave of our desire, but the slave of the Ultimate Controller!
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2nd friend: You mean to say, by birth, we are the slaves of God???
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1st friend: There is difference between "God" and the "Creator". You can find many Gods in different philosophies. You can also find many personalities claimed to have miraculous power who are worshipped as "God" or "The part of God". But those Gods are not the ultimate controllers. The One Who is the Real Creator of the Heaven and the earth is the Ultimate Controller of every entity.[2]
By birth, we are the slaves of this Ultimate One True Creator.
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2nd friend: Well then, if we are the slaves of the Creator by birth, then why we will be blamed for running after our desire? If the Creator is the Controller Ultimately, then the Creator is making us to do all these!! If a thief steals from a house, then The Creator is responsible for that! Why should the thief be caught for punishment???
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1st friend: Because of the free will...
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2nd friend: Sorry! What did you say??
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1st friend: "Free will" my friend, we have the free will.[3]
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2nd friend: If the Creator is the Ultimate Controller, then what is the use of such "free will"!!
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1st friend: Okay, let me tell you something.
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2nd friend: Okay...
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1st friend: Earth is a planet which moves round the sun, right it?
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2nd friend: Yeah.
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1st friend: Suppose, the earth wants to stop its movement one day. Is it possible?
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2nd friend: No, it is not generally possible. Because, gravitational force works between the earth and the other celestial bodies, specially between the earth and the sun.
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1st friend: So, that means, the sun and the earth are bound to follow some laws or rules. They can not go against such rules. Isn't it?
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2nd friend: Yeah, right.
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1st friend: These rules or laws are defined as the commandments of the Creator.[4]
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2nd friend: Hmm...
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1st friend: Now suppose, you bring some milk before a hungry cat or some meat before a hungry dog. You leave the food for that cat or that dog. What will happen?
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2nd friend: They will go to have that food, anyone knows that.
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1st friend: If the cat or the dog is not stopped by anybody and they remain very hungry, will they stop from going towards that food themselves?
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2nd friend: No! They are the animals and they can not decide the right and the wrong. So, if the food is infront of them and they remain very hungry, they will surely try to have that food if they are not stopped by somebody.
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1st friend: Exactly. That means, the animals are also bound to follow their natural rules. They also do not go against their nature. Right?
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2nd friend: Yeah, you're right.
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1st friend: Now suppose, a man is walking on a road. Suddenly, he finds a money bag full of money before him on his way. What will he do?
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2nd friend: He may decide what he should do. He may not take it; or may take it for himself; or may take it so that he can return it to its main owner and so on.
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1st friend: That means, human being has option to choose the right and the wrong way?
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2nd friend: Yeah! Why not! We have intellectual brain and we can decide what should be done and what should not be done.
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1st friend: That's it. It is called "Free will"!
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2nd friend: Ooo...
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1st friend: I have already said that natural rules or laws are the commandments of the Creator Almighty as He has set such rules for the Creation. Almost all other creations have submitted their will to the Creator as they are bound to follow the rules.
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2nd friend: 🤔🤔🤔....
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1st friend: But human being is a different creation. He has been given a slight more power to either obey the Creator's rules or not to obey too.
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2nd friend: That means, human being has free will, almost all other creations generally have no free will?
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1st friend: Yes. Human being can decide the right and the wrong. He can obey the rules or the commandments, or even can violate them also. For this reason, we are responsible for our works. Not the Creator!
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2nd friend: Then how the Creator control us if we can willingly obey His rules or can violate them also???
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1st friend: By setting a limit dear friend. Whatever we do, Almighty gives us the opportunity to do but even we can not go out of the control of the Creator!
But whatever we do, we will be responsible for that and so we have to give the calculation of our every deed because of our free will to the Ultimate Creator.[5]
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2nd friend: Okay. Now come to the point. You said that we are slaves of the Creator by birth. And we have free will. So, what does it mean?
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1st friend: It means, when a child is born, it submits its will to the Almighty Creator like the other creature.[6]
But after the passage of time, when he is grown up, because of having "free will", he can go against the rules of the Creator and can submit himself to any other thing beside the True Creator.
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2nd friend: Hmm..
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1st friend: For this reason, a child remains holy when it is born. But when he or she is grown up, he or she may commit sin like commiting adultery, fornication; stealing money, wealth; killing innocent human being and so on because of misusing of free will.
And for such corrupted deeds, he or she will be responsible in this world and also in the hereafter.[7]
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2nd friend: Now I can understand the real point that we become the slaves by birth means we submit our will to the Creator when we are born.
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1st friend: Yeah. And when we are grown up, we can also change our nature of submission and can choose the evil's way too.
We can be in the slavery of false gods, celebrities, friends, ancestors and even our own mind also.
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2nd friend: We then blindly obey their advice not considering the truth and the commandments the Creator!
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1st friend: Yes. Indeed, we can not feel that, this world is a temporary place for enjoyment and we can not save ourselves in the hereafter if we do not return to the way of submission of the Ultimate Controller.[8]
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2nd friend: Hmm...
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1st friend: Indeed, this temporary period is nothing but a complex test for the hereafter!
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Notes:
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[1] Worship of different god or goddess is not equal to the submission of the One True Ultimate Creator. Here such worship of gods is compared to the slavery of preposterous deities.
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We can find that in several places of Semetic Theology, form-worship is being condemned.
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Bible clearly condemns form-worship:
"Thou shalt have **no other gods** before me.
***Thou shalt not make unto thee *any graven image,* or *any likeness of any thing* that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:***
***Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them***: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me"
(The KJV Bible, Exodus, 20:3-5)
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Again the Quran also condemns form-worship:
"Allah(Almighty Creator) ***forgiveth not (The sin of) joining other gods with Him(if anyone does not ask forgiveness before his death)***; but He forgiveth whom He pleaseth other sins than this: one who joins other gods with Allah, Hath strayed far, far away (from the right)."
(The Quran, 4:116)
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Even in Non-Semetic Philosophy like in Indian Philosophy, form-worship is considered as a lower type of worship.
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Bhagabat Gita says that men of ignorance having desire of the worldly matter worship different demi-gods according to their own nature:
"Those ***whose minds are distorted by material desires surrender unto demigods*** and follow the particular rules and regulations of worship **according to their own natures.**"
(Bhagabat Gita, 7:20)
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[2] "In the beginning God **created** the heaven and the earth."
(The KJV Bible, Genesis,1:1)
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The word "Creator" is used instead of "God" in this conversation. In many theology, we can see that God becomes male, female or gets any other incarnation with any worldly body to satisfy his devotees. All such concepts can be found together in Indian Philosophy where "God" is not considered as the Ultimate Creator; rather God is considered as the "Supreme Soul". And God made the creature from his own body.
The Scriptures say:
“He(the divine Self-existence or God), desiring to produce beings of many kinds ***from his own body***….”
(Manusmriti, 01:08)
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“And when you have thus learned the truth, you will know that ***all living beings are but part of Me***-and that **they are in Me, and are Mine**.”
(Bhagabat Gita, 4:35)
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Like if the wood is raw material, we can transform the wood into chair; in the same way, God is the raw material who transforms his own body to make the universe which indicates, God can not have the power to create anything out of nothing.
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Indian Scholar Swami Vivekananda rejects the concept of Creator with the excuse of a merciless God.
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"....if they are all created, why does a just and merciful God create one happy and another unhappy, why is He so partial? Nor would it mend matters in the least to hold that those who are miserable in this life will be happy in a future one. Why should a man be miserable even here in the reign of a just and merciful God?
In the second place, ***the idea of a creator God does not explain the anomaly***, but simply expresses the cruel fiat of an all-powerful being...."
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(Complete Works of Vivekananda, Volume 1/Addresses at The Parliament of Religions/Paper on Hinduism)
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But he can be clearly responded by one of the semetic scriptures where it is said that the Creator is merciful but He is not unjust as He has made this life only a test for the hereafter and He will judge each of our worldly deeds in various ways. So the standard of the ultimate judgement is based on the test for the eternal life of hereafter, not on the joy and sorry of this temporary world.
"[He](The Ultimate One True Creator) Who created death and life ***to test you*** [as to] which of you is best in deed - and He is the Exalted in Might, the Forgiving"
(The Quran, 67:2)
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[3] Indian Philosophy considers everything as the part of the "Supreme Soul" and there hardly gives priority of "free will" as thinking that "I am the body and I am doing the work" is our ignorance and the cause of desire and suffering because the nature makes us to do the works forcefully. So the knowledge that "I am not the damageable body, but the eternal soul which is a part of the Supreme Soul" - should be gained and felt in the heart for being liberated from all miseries of the worldly illusion.
But this philosophy can not explain why such eternal soul enters the damageable body and becomes surrounded by ignorance and illusion!
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We can also find this issue from Vivekananda's comment:
"***Why should the free, perfect, and pure being be thus under the thraldom of matter, is the next question.***
***How can the perfect soul be deluded into the belief that it is imperfect?***
We have been told that the Hindus shirk the question and say that no such question can be there. Some thinkers want to answer it by positing one or more quasi-perfect beings, and use big scientific names to fill up the gap. But naming is not explaining. The question remains the same. How can the perfect become the quasi-perfect; how can the pure, the absolute, change even a microscopic particle of its nature? But the Hindu is sincere. He does not want to take shelter under sophistry.
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***He is brave enough to face the question in a manly fashion; and his answer is: “I do not know.***
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***I do not know how the perfect being, the soul, came to think of itself as imperfect, as joined to and conditioned by matter."***
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But the fact is a fact for all that. It is a fact in everybody's consciousness that one thinks of oneself as the body.
The Hindu does not attempt to explain why one thinks one is the body. The answer that it is the will of God is no explanation.
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***This is nothing more than what the Hindu says, "I do not know.""***
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(Complete Works of Vivekananda/Volume 1/Addresses at The Parliament of Religions/Paper on Hinduism)
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So, considering that God is the Supreme Soul and we are the eternal souls coming from God - is just like a blind following of theology as there can be found no logical reason why this concept should be valid!
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On the other hand, the Concept of the One True Creator clearly explains that Almighty God is not the Supreme Soul but the Creator of all souls and everything Who can create out of nothing. So souls are not eternal, it can be damageable too if Almighty wishes.
"But does not man call to mind that We created him before **out of nothing**?"
(The Quran, 19:67)
So, in this concept, we can see very clearly that human being has free will to choose his way and he will be responsible for his worldly deeds in the eternal hereafter.
In the Bible, it is also mentioned that Jesus Christ has used his free will properly by submiting himself to the One True Almighty Creator.
"I(Jesus) can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because ***I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father(Almighty God)*** which hath sent me."
(The KJV Bible, John, 05:30)
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[4] The atheist people may explain the process of the creation of the universe without taking any concept of God. They can just blame God showing that Almighty God is unjust and also give Him negative attributes. But they can not show any valid proof that there is no existence of any Ultimate Controller. They reject the Ultimate Creator with the excuse that everything has come into existence by chance which can not satisfy a logical mind always. If the teacher is not in the class, the students will generally make a noise. The class can be controlled when the teacher maintains the students properly in the classroom.
Similarly, if there is no Ultimate Controller, then the universe will also be destroyed because of violation of natural laws. So, as the laws are there in nature and the nature is bound to obey these laws, we can define these laws or rules as the commandments of the Ultimate Controller or the Ultimate Creator.
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[5] Our free will turns into our action and for this reason, such free will should be judged properly. So, this worldly life has been made as test for the hereafter. See the last portion of note no. 2 for details.
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[6] In the Semetic Theology, the arabic prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has preached that every child is born with the nature of submission to the One True Creator. Later on, when the child grows up, he can be affected by the surrounded circumstances and may submit himself to something other than the True Creator. So, when he hears the truth and follows it again, he then returns to his previous way of submission with which he was born.
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[7] "Hereafter" or "The life after death" is not just a blind faith, but a logical concept.
Hitlar killed a huge amount of innocent human being.
Then he died by committing suicide which is illegal both in theology and in man-made laws.
We know from Newton's third law that every action has the same and opposite reaction.
So, if Hitlar is bound to get the reaction of such misdeeds, how will he be given the outcome?? Here the logical response is the concept of hereafter that Hitlar and every person will get the proper outcome of his wordly deeds fully in the hereafter.
Here Indian Philosophy adds the concept of several birth and death with the concept of hereafter too, because they can not explain why some people remains rich & healthy and some poor & ill! How can somebody remember his past life and so on. But later in semetic theology, it is clearly explained that the wealth, joy, sorrow, the memory of the brain etc all are just the test for the eternal hereafter. See the note no. 2 for details.
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[8] In the concept of the Creator, it is described that it has been given option by the Almighty and man has chosen this human life willingly for being superior than the other creation. For this, we have to go through the test and we are now responsible for it.
The Scripture says:
"We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: ***but man undertook it***;- He was indeed unjust and foolish"
(The Quran, 33:72)