Does Free Will Truly Exist?

Through the years, a lot of people have questioned the fact that we've free will as humans, and that's as a result of the various things they see and experience around them. To start with, we should know that free will can also be stated to be freedom to do anything as you see fit anywhere you find yourself. But then, this seems not to be the case because of the rules and regulations and laws that seem to govern the different places we find ourselves, such as our country, society, the road, our place of worship and the like. With all of these, do we truly have free will, or is everything just a facade to make us feel good?

In all fairness, truly the free will being preached seems like a lie stated to make us believe we're truly free, while they still have rules that try to mould us to a pattern of lifestyle they want us to live. If these things are being put into consideration, we'll all see for a fact that, of a truth, there's no free will since there's a kind of way the rules, regulations and law have conformed people to live and act by; for instance, you can't decide you just want to keep driving without obeying the traffic rule, and you can speak your truth without being silly in court for defamation of character and other related broken laws.

To be honest, despite the fact that our free will, which we're said to have, seems to be controlled by some laws, I can't help but still back the need for those laws and regulations, because in the event that we don't have them in place, then our society would become a shadow of itself. Even though we have these laws, we still see some of the dangers free will can cause in cases of banditry, kidnapping and the like we see in our society today. We all know the unrest these acts of free will have left a lot of people in; they have even taken lives, so now imagine a situation where the laws aren't there at all, and then we'll all have to live at the mercy of what everyone does because, after all, they have free will to do anything.

I believe the laws, rules and regulations are there to contain what we do and, most of all, put our world in order and, as well, guide and protect us from the dangers that come with having free will to do things as we see fit. With these laws, rules and regulations, now people, even though they believe they have free will, now know something isn't acceptable, and they also know why these laws are there and the benefits they present to the people at large.

Personally, I don't think not being allowed to live outside the box provided by society poses a threat to my free will, because I recognise the fact that those boxes are there to contain me and others from overdoing things to the point where our free will begins to affect others and endanger their lives, properties and the like. I mean, what's the point of having free will if your free will poses a threat to the society you find yourself in?

I recognise the fact that some societies, countries and organisations overdo the various regulations they set for individuals, and that should be done reasonably, but then I won't say outrightly that laws, rules and regulations are a threat to our free will; in contrast, they help us to make our society a better place and make us a good person to everyone around us when we follow those laws and rules.

All photos are mine.