More musings:

First, in our daily practical lives, it “appears” that we have free will: we make choices – intelligent or otherwise, we learn from our mistakes and (hopefully) avoid repeating them, we take responsibility for our actions (if we’re mature adults), and we grow as human beings. It certainly “feels” like I’m free. And in the sense that my actions are not (usually) constrained by circumstances or other people, I am free. I think when most people think of free will, this is what they’re thinking about.

But all you have to do is look around you and you’ll see that what appears to be true is not necessarily true. It appears that the sun, moon, and stars revolve around the Earth. It appears that “solid” matter is solid, when in fact it’s mostly empty space. There are countless other examples. We accept that atoms are bound by physical laws, yet we reject that particular collections of atoms are not. Why?

As I’m learning from this thread, the illusion of free will is one of the hardest illusions to give up. Most psychonauts have no trouble letting go of their ego (however it’s defined) and talk of “merging with the Godhead” or recognizing “we are all one” or concluding “I am God”. Many have no difficulty claiming that “selfhood” is an illusion. Almost as many believe that physicality is a fantasy. They feel “enlightened” because they’re able to let go of self. Yet these same people (I’m generalizing and not referring to anyone in particular) are unwilling to let go of the most illusory concept of all – that of free will.

I didn’t just one day freely choose (irony intended) to recognize that the concept of free will is a logical impossibility. As I hope you can see, I’ve given it a lot of thought. And I don’t want to resort to an “appeal to authority”, but most philosophers and all strict materialists accept that free will is ultimately an impossibility. Philosophers seem much more interested in asking questions that follow from the conclusion, such as the type benzyme has asked – “Given that there’s no free will, how can we hold anyone responsible for their actions?”

One way to learn something new is to entertain concepts or ideas that seem counterintuitive or in some way disagreeable. Ask conditional questions: “If there wasn’t free will, what would follow from that?” It doesn’t require you to change your beliefs, but it does require you to think.