Still Holding Out for Free Will?
Although free will seems like reality to most people (or everyone), one only has to look around to realise that it's an illusion.
Don’t we weigh arguments and evidence on both sides then come to a rational decision about the issue? This might be almost instantaneous, such as deciding where the next foot is planted for our next step. A decision is made for every action we take but what I'm most concerned with is why we don't appear to care about the environmental damage we're doing or the unsustainable use of what civilisation deems vital resources. Why do we put economic issues above most other issues, come elections? And why do different people think this or that party, this or that politician, will make better choices on our behalf?
We've all got free will, haven't we? So why do people weigh the same arguments and evidence but come to different conclusions? Do we have different free wills? Why does one person's free will cause them to make one decisions but another's free will cause them to make a different decisions?
Why are different populations of the same country at war? Why are different countries at war with each other? Why do some think it's fine to steal from others or damage their property. Surely it all makes no sense; we should all be living in harmony with each other. After all, we've got free will and must all see the ridiculousness of each others' positions.
If we had free will and had access to the same information, we'd all make the same decisions. If you don't think we would make the same decisions, what is it about each of our free wills that causes those decisions to differ?
In reality, there is no free will. There are only neurons, processing information, and firing in a sequence that is determined by how our brains developed and that is determined by everything that went before now. This completely explains our varied behaviours within the same environment and with access to the same information. It explains all of the problems mentioned above (like war, like environmental damage denial, like a belief in technology to fix our ills).
If free will exists but still allows us to make different decisions with the same information, then what caused those differences? It would be how our free will developed through education, upbringing, culture, illness, hormone deficiencies, genetic differences, and so on. Oh, that's the same as how our physical brains developed! So no need for free will, then.
The consequences of accepting the lack of free will depend on what decisions each of our brains makes based on that understanding. No-one deserves anything (punishment or praise, or rights) but that will impact how we run our societies. It's not clear what the rational answer is to that, since humans aren't rational creatures (no free will).