The Illusion of Free Thought: A Critical Exploration

Do you think you are a free thinker? No. I am basically locked up, imprisoned, and I can't be released to being free ever again. I don't feel free when I hear voices.

Unfortunately, none of us are. We are heavily influenced by media and societal expectations. Political correctness will usually mop up any free thinkers that are left. I try every day to question everything I am told and never take a news story at face value. I always try and look beyond the headline.

I question science and never accept what Im told without rethinking the problem from a neutral position. This upsets a lot of people because it questions the safe world they like to live in.

The Quagmire of Free Will

I think there are two possibilities. Either I am predestined to believe that I have free will or I am just deluded to believe that I do. Since I am entirely fooled by the illusion, it is identical from my perspective. That's obviously a logical quagmire.

As long as you equate thinking to consciousness, the unconscious calculates without thinking, and free will is guiding it, so many people deny free will exists. Then all thinking is free from the demands of existing programming to the extent it is free. That was a carefully worded answer because the question is set up to be impossible without those qualifications. But if you're true intent was to simply challenge the reader to ask how freely they think, then some sort of scale must be established to determine how freely we think.

The saying “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is an illustration of people who become more close-minded as they age. But those who follow more of a continuous learning lifestyle are even more free than before because they have so much more knowledge to build from. So age is not the determining characteristic; it's simply the humility required to be teachable and the hunger required for learning new things instead of proving oneself complete.