Choice, free-will, free agency. It's been said that is God's greatest gift to man. Where-as; according to legend/myth/doctrine Satan wanted MAN not to have any choice but to worship the Father. Jesus said " let man choose for himself."
For that I am grateful that I have the where-withall to choose whatever I so desire and by my experience, knowledge and common sense will continue to do so even if it may not be the brightest thing I've done. If we are not free to choose then we would not learn by experience.
A child will choose to touch that bright red thingy that mom cooks dinner on and end up burn... if they're intelligent they'll not do it again. Or they can choose to listen to the parent that catches them in time and pulls their hand back and says no-no that's hot, it'll burn you.
We see a wallet laying on the ground and can spy a few ten dollar bills sticking out of it. We can choose to pick up the wallet and then face a myriad of choices. Keep the wallet, keep the money-toss the wallet, find the owner, etc. etc.
Our values, morals, standards, experiences and intelligence will help dictate our choices as we go through this life. It has been said that we average about 3000 choices every single day. Many of them are subconcious choices based on the values, morals, standards, etc. we have. Many choices are from our own base instincts (also on the level of the subconcious). Many choices are from concious decisions and emotional reactions based on past experiences. Still many others are from impulses and how much control we have over them.
But yeah, all our choices/free will decisions are free. A terrified person pointing a loaded gun towards a savage, with intent to kill attacker; still makes the choice to pull the trigger or not. We can just as easily motivated by fear NOT do do anything as well as to respond. It is a choice.
Some will say well, maybe the person is just too terrified to do anything. That is because they chose (subconciously based on their experiences and control of impulses) to be terrified.
Consenquences? Well it's always present. They're always going to be either good or bad. We'll never know for sure until we experience them. That has been one of the oldest catch-22's known to man. We cannot experience anything without consenquences and we cannot have consensquences without (choosing to) have (that particular) experience.
And like so many Darwin Award winners and nominees we can and do choose whether or not to learn from those experiences.
:asian:
Freewill by: Rush
There are those who think that life has nothing left to chance,
A host of holy horrors to direct our aimless dance.
A planet of playthings,
We dance on the strings
Of powers we cannot perceive
"The stars aren't aligned,
Or the gods are malign..."
Blame is better to give than receive.
Chorus
You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill;
I will choose a path that's clear
I will choose freewill.
There are those who think that they were dealt a losing hand,
The cards were stacked against them; they weren't born in Lotusland.
All preordained
A prisoner in chains
A victim of venomous fate.
Kicked in the face,
You can't pray for a place
In heaven's unearthly estate.
Chorus
Each of us
A cell of awareness
Imperfect and incomplete.
Genetic blends
With uncertain ends
On a fortune hunt that's far too fleet.
Chorus
