Choice vs. Free Will
Our readings this week make us question just how much the decisions we make are actually influenced by outside sources. Personally I think the argument about all of our choices already having been decided for us is mostly just crazy talk. The thought that our future is already set in stone, there’s no way we’ll ever change it, and even if we think we’re changing something, that change was already decided for us? I don’t know, that just doesn’t make any legitimate sense to me. Not to mention, we’ll probably never be able to prove it anyways, so how will we ever know (granted, that also means we won’t be able to disprove it either. It’s mostly just a matter of opinion at this point. And, in my opinion, that’s just an excuse made up to get people out of bad situations.)
Really, the argument that the two boys who killed that other boy were just, essentially, “living out their destiny”? Come on. How does that justify anything. Seems like a pretty weak defense, if you ask me. It really is just a cheap excuse to try and fix a mistake. We should all take responsibility for our actions, no matter what the consequences. I don’t think our futures are set in stone. Sure, we might be influenced by the things around us, and I do agree that genetics can play a role in how we behave. But at the end of the day, what we do is our choice, and yes, I think if someone goes and kills a kid “just to prove that they could do it”, they should be punished, just like anyone else. We can’t just fall back on this idea to get out of things, that’s really just not how our society functions. Makes no sense to me.
