Do We Have Free Will?

A cow sees two paths before it, labeled left and right, but cannot see that they both lead to the slaughterhouse

Free Will – the defining characteristic of higher consciousness. The thing that makes us human. It’s clear that this is a fundamental property of how we interpret reality.

However, for more than 50 years, the most successful scientific theories ever devised have attempted to interpret that same reality. They’ve been tested, re-tested, and challenged again and again. For all this effort, the equations that describe physics have repeatedly held up to all possible scrutiny. We’ve used them to grow closer to the nature of reality. But the closer we get, the more we find an unsettling conclusion.

If modern physics theory accurately describes reality, as it appears to, then the nature of free will is called into question.

Through the lenses of science and Buddhist philosophy, join Sam Parris as we ask and answer the question: Do we have free will?

A friend of the church, Sam Parris is a lifelong student of philosophy, science and reason. Through this lens, Sam has long sought to find ways to better describe the nature of reality. As an AP award winning journalist, Sam told the stories of the Coastal Bend community for a decade. At present, Sam leads a team of experts who operate the technical backend of nationwide digital advertising campaigns. Those annoying ads that follow you around and seem to know what you’ve been talking about? Yes, those ads.

With a nod to both science and religious philosophy in mind, Sam is aiming to ask and answer a question with the U2C3 community: Do we have free will?

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