By which criteria do you choose among the choices given to you?

@BeOPSVMo What makes me happy, or is pleasing to me. It's the same way I choose followers for my cult.

I don't think free will is proposed as an alternative to consciousness. I believe in consciousness but not free will. "Consciousness" is a quality you have that means that there is "something it's like to be" you. "Free will" is a proposed mechanism by which organisms make choices i.e in such a way that you could have chosen differently than you did.

Do you think we would have free will the influences you mentioned were taken away?

@BeOPSVMo if all of that were taken away, we would be each living alone and still have circumstances, issues, decisions, etc. There is no free will. It isn't possible.

I agree. I don’t even know how to describe what’s being claimed when people say they have free will.

Both.

I actually don't believe that randomness is possible, and that only the first of your choices is. A basic example, I learned while going to school for programming, is that random number generators require seeds to be placed into algorithms. Those seeds are usually a numerical representation of the time-- down to a fraction of a second. Since the random number generator is never accessed in the same millisecond, each of that generator's outputs come out different and without pattern, which makes them seem random.

Would addiction be an example of a human not exercising his or her will?

I think I agree with you.

What do you mean?

@BeOPSVMo Never mind, if you hang around you will figure it out Sherlock.

I agree that it’s important to underatand that we can make choices regardless of the mechanism by which we do so.

What makes you think there isn’t a/aren’t puppet master(s)? Do you hope it isn’t the case?

That image does a fantastic job in expressing one of my top frustrations.

it's very powerful when you think about it.

yes but there are many solutions to your choices you won't like

The question isn't "Do we have choices?" It's "Could we have chosen differently?"

You have a brain that weighs pros and cons. Your experiences have defined what you consider a "pro" and a "con".

@BeOPSVMo yes, i do...but i don't see how that pertains to the question, or my comment. not trying to sound like a jerk, i really just think im missing your point.

You said "Nobody chose for me". Does "me" refer to your brain, or something else? In other words-- is there anything aside from your brain that your choices come from?

@BeOPSVMo me refers to all of me, my brain, the rest of my body, my thoughts. but no i don't think my choices come from anywhere but my own mind. my choices may be affected by outside influences, but that doesnt mean its still not a choice. in other words, i may be given a different set of options than i thought i was dealing with at first, but in the end, aside from a few things like if you are going to die today or not( which you can still make into a choice if you opt for suicide) yeah, i have a choice

You can do it, you just have to be willing to accept the consequences, right?

watch the film, jack reacher as I think firstly it's a great film and secondly it shows really how free you are. you do have to forget all the DNA jack leaves on the corpses he makes but its still a valid film.