IF WE HAVE NO FREE WILL THEN WE SHOULDN'T FEEL ANGRY, SHOULDN'T FEEL GUILTY AND SHOULDN'T HATE

Determinism, being the denial of free will, says, "Everything we go for has been set up by all that has taken place up until now."  If you think all things, even things that don't look like it, follow physical rules you are a determinist.  I would stress that even if souls and spirits exist, just because something is non-physical does not mean it is any less fixed.  It could be even worse, if that were possible.

It is common for some to say that in the sub-atomic level that there is randomness or non-determinism.  But if that randomness itself determines us we are back where we started.  We are no better off.

Self-control and free will are not exactly the same thing.  Free is definitely controlling yourself but self-control refers to how a free agent still needs to control their own free will.  Sounds odd yes but everybody trying to diet, even the most fervent believer in free will, says the choice cannot be made there and then.  It is made over time and needs effort, hard effort.  They see it as another way of exercising free will.

Suppose determinism is right.  You just do what you do and you cannot do any different.  You feel free just like an animal feels free though it has no real choice either.  Hidden instincts control it.  A feeling that I must do x can be a major cause of me doing x.  It does not mean I am free at all.  The feeling being nice does not mean I am unprogrammed.

The determinist does not use the word choice in the free will sense.  It really just refers to a reaction.  Choices are are not made by you but brought to you. The coffee and the tea are there. Which one? The point is that you did not create them. Most of what you see in your life you did not see coming. What you did see coming did not come exactly in the way you would have expected.  Even if we have free will, it is not fair to concentrate more on what the person did than what life offered to him. We still don't have enough there to justify sending a Ripper to the gallows.

We have instincts that make us feel angry, guilty and full of hate.  Deterministic forces create these in the first place so they will continue in some form after you become aware that free will is only a guess.  The forces that program your will and program you to feel you are in control when you clearly are not are too big for you to overcome them by getting rid of guilt feelings and the desire for punishment.

But imagine knowing we are determined or believing it could override all that.

Determinism takes away anger against persons. It makes you angry about what they do but not them.
 
When we reward, we do it because of the outward actions of the person. Real rewards focus on the motive far more than the achievement. We still reward achievements when the person admits to making the achievements from an unworthy motive. Determinists could reward then like the free-willists do for the rewards are not the real thing anyway.
 
We could live without rewards and praise being rational activities for they will happen anyway for people like doing them and getting them. So it is nonsense to think we need free will to make them plausible.
 
If we believe in free will for the sake of believing in punishment then we are vindictive people indeed.
 
The law of the land and any other law is for public order and not for rewarding or punishing. That’s all and that is how it should be. People believe in free will because they want to believe in rewards and punishing but this is a mistake. It is better to see a bad person as sick rather than as somebody who is wilfully evil when we can and we always can. Always! It is less harsh and that is why God and free will go hand in hand so belief in God is bad news.
 
The only reason we revere rewards and punishments, paying people back for what they have freely done, is because of their effects. But we can behave as if we believe these things just for the sake of the effects.

Determinism implies we should have no anger and no guilt and forgive but that is not what happens.  However believing in it and being aware of its truth does stop these things from being too strong.  But there is another should as well.  The rock should make a noise when it falls off the cliff.  So in that sense determinism should make us angry and guilty.



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