Free will is an illusion (our choices are predetermined)

When you make decisions in your life, your choices are likely predetermined based on certain factors. These include the knowledge you possess, experiences you've had, your current socioeconomic and natural environments, and the opinions or beliefs you form based on those factors.

Then also how effectively you process this information depends on your genetics, which determines a large part of your intelligence and creativity, as well as other facets of your personality. Humans are not that different from other animals such as dogs. For example most people know that in general pitbulls are more aggressive than golden retrievers. Likewise people have different personality traits based on the genes they inherit from their parents, and how those parents raise their children. Even artificial intelligence can detect criminals based on their facial features with surprisingly high accuracy.

So I would say that free will is an illusion. Our choices are determined before we make them based on factors outside of our control. To make a specific choice is like baking a cake, you need a list of ingredients and instructions, which would be for example specific knowledge and experiences, as well as the right genetics to make a particular choice. If you don't have chocolate, you won't be able to bake a chocolate cake. If you don't live in the right place at the right time and have a high enough intelligence, you won't be able to become a rocket engineer.

If you are in a bad place in your life, don't be too hard on yourself, it's not your fault. Some people just get dealt a bad hand of cards, and even those who start out promising may fail later in life, and it's not their fault. It's how it always was going to end up, cause and effect.

That said, I still think we should punish people for making bad decisions like committing crimes, and reward people for good decisions like helping the less fortunate. This puts variables into the environment that makes life a bit more bearable.

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