Member-only story
On Free Will, Hamburgers, Mysticism & “Whatever”-ness
What To Do When The Bulk of Human Intelligence Is Out of Your Control
The intelligence of the human body goes largely unnoticed. Every day, your eyes open, your heart beats, your lungs shuttle oxygen and carbon dioxide into and out of your body, and your blood flows with a deep and abiding intelligence. No questions asked. The machinery of life lies largely outside of your control. No wonder everyone is a little anxious.
The Grand Paradox
In one of the grandest paradoxes of all time, we have also been endowed with the power to know, choose, decide, and influence all of this spontaneous machinery. Largely orchestrated by the prefrontal cortex, the capacity for free will is the gift we use to interact with this unspoken magic of being alive.
Sometimes we get carried away by this power. It’s intoxicating to know that we can claim some authority over it all by changing our brains and bodies. So, on a daily basis, we feed ourselves, exercise, think, and make lists, obliged as we are to leave the mark of our conscious thoughts and actions on the ephemeral nature of being alive.
The Undeniable Role of Free Will
That there is a role for free will is clear. What would life be like if we failed to stop…
