Volitional Argument

 Argument about freewill

you dont have freewill since 

you dont control when you are going to wake up from bed

you can drive without noticing how your feet work while talking on a phone.

you can not control your cry when watching sad movies.

you dont control your feet while walking or running.

did you choose to be asian, american, or kroean?

did you choose your religion, your name, your language?

| Argument Against Free Will  | Key Idea                                           |

| --------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |

| **Determinism**             | Every action is caused by prior events             |

| **Neuroscience**            | Brain decides before you're aware                  |

| **Biological conditioning** | You didn't choose your traits or preferences       |

| **Psychological limits**    | Your "choices" are heavily constrained             |

| **Illusion of agency**      | Conscious will may just be post-facto storytelling |

Rebuttal:

Just because something feels real doesn’t make it actually real.

It feels like the sun goes around the Earth.

It feels like you're in control of your thoughts — but they just appear.

Illusions can feel real — that’s literally what an illusion is.

**Morality doesn’t prove free will. It just depends on how we build morality.

Saying "I’m free if I act on my own desires" is circular:

Where did those desires come from?

Did you choose them?

Or were they shaped by your past, genes, and environment?

If you didn’t choose the chooser, how free are you?

*** If you're brainwashed to want something, are you free just because it's "your" desire?

You weigh pros and cons — but those weights are determined by your programming: your values, emotions, past experiences.

Machines can "deliberate" without being free. So can you.

You're not choosing freely — you’re executing your code.

You don’t choose your thoughts. You don’t choose your desires. You don’t choose your self. So what are you choosing — really?

Even the choice to believe in free will... may not have been yours.

Free will might be one foundation for ethics, but it’s not the only one, and certainly not a necessary one. Morality can be — and often is — built on more solid, empirical ground: consequences, empathy, cooperation, and shared human values.

You hold people "responsible" not because they were free, but because responding (through social consequences, correction, boundaries) can change future behavior.

Morality can be built from empathy, social instincts, and evolved emotions, not abstract free will.

We care about others because we evolved as social beings.

We form moral codes to live cooperatively and avoid chaos.

We feel guilt or praise because it regulates behavior, not because we have metaphysical freedom.

Free will isn't required for empathy or moral emotions to matter.

================Morals ===============

"Because of the Ten Commandments, humans have morals."

1. Morality Exists Across All Human Cultures — Not Just Those with the Ten Commandments. Moral norms predate and exist independently of any one religion.

Example:

The 42 Negative Confessions from Ancient Egypt (e.g., “I have not stolen,” “I have not killed”) existed centuries before the Hebrew Bible.

Confucian ethics, Buddhist precepts, and Greek philosophy also lay out deep moral systems with no link to the Ten Commandments.

2. Morality Is Rooted in Evolutionary, Social, and Psychological Mechanisms

Humans evolved in groups.

Cooperation, honesty, and fairness improved group survival.

Punishing cheaters and helping allies were adaptive traits.

Moral behavior is often wired into us — not imposed from outside.

3. Social contract theory :

We live peacefully together by agreeing to rules.

Moral codes emerge as a way to protect mutual interests, not because of divine law.

4. Not All Ten Commandments Are Universally Moral

| Commandment                          | Moral for All Humans?                            |

| ------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------ |

| “You shall not kill”                 | ✅ Universally accepted                           |

| “You shall not steal”                | ✅ Universally accepted                           |

| “Honor your father and mother”       | ✅ Common value                                   |

| “You shall not bear false witness”   | ✅ Common in all cultures                         |

| “You shall not covet…”               | ❓ More thought-policing than behavior-regulating |

| “Have no other gods”                 | ❌ Specific to monotheistic religion              |

| “Don’t take the Lord’s name in vain” | ❌ Only applies if you believe in that God        |

| “Keep the Sabbath holy”              | ❌ Religious ritual, not a universal moral duty   |

| “Don’t make idols”                   | ❌ Specific to Abrahamic theology                 |

5. Morality Didn’t Begin in 1300 BCE

The Ten Commandments (traditionally dated around the 13th–15th century BCE) are:

Ancient, yes.

But not the oldest moral code by far.

Claiming the Ten Commandments are the source of human morality ignores the fact that moral behavior existed long before them, and exists independently across every culture on Earth. Most of the moral principles they express — like prohibitions against murder and theft — are nearly universal, because they’re necessary for any functioning society, not because they were handed down on stone tablets. Morality is a human product of evolution, culture, and reason — not just divine decree.

Earlier or contemporary moral codes include:

The Code of Hammurabi (~1750 BCE)

The Laws of Eshnunna (~1930 BCE)

The Egyptian Book of the Dead (~2000 BCE)

The Rigveda (early Indian moral-spiritual texts)

Morality was a thing long before Moses allegedly went up Mount Sinai.