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Atheism and agnosticism aren't mutually exclusive.

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Nor are agnosticism and believing in god. i don't see your point?


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Your use of "free will" is ill-defined. There are two completely different ways in which people use that term. I suspect that you haven't thought it through very well - the fact that many intelligent people believe there is no free will should be a clue that you've missed something.


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What are the two ways? I define it here as the experience of having control over our mind/body and the ability to make choices outside of external influence. Everyone has this experience afaik, yet some people chalk it up to illusion due to other metaphysical things they believe in... ie God or physical determinism. I don't believe it is an illusion and I will talk more about that in a bit.

I am well aware that many intelligent, deeply introspective people do not believe in free will. Perhaps I have missed something but it is not for lack of 'thinking it through'. Also many intelligent people do believe in free will, perhaps you are missing something?


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I've done vegan/meditation/ayahuasca/weed. I doubt yoga would be enough to change my mind.


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Perhaps not.

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Your description of matter as being "cold" is just an appeal to emotion and to accepted norms in Western society. Material isn't "cold," nor is the existence accepted by most atheists.

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I grant that cold is probably a terrible choice to use because of the seeming appeal to emotion. It wasn't meant as that, I didn't mean anything negative by it. A better word would be meaningless? By 'cold' (again, I used the wrong word lets just assume i said 'x') I meant that the universe is just a bunch of sub-atomic particles that are arranged randomly with no deeper meaning and our existence is coincidental.

As for why I don't believe that our experience of free will is an illusion, it's because I have no reason to believe it. Simple, maybe too simple. But it seems to me people say it is an illusion for one of two reasons... either God arranged the universe in such and such way so everything is His Will, or, the universe acts according to strict laws and we are part of the universe therefore we act according to strict laws.

However, my most fundamental experience is that of free will. If nothing else I can modify images/thoughts that are floating around my head, not to mention tough moral decisions we've all had to face. The experience of free will is at the same level as logic. I experience 2+2=4 in my mind as a whole complete idea with no moving parts once i understand 2,+,4, and =. Its deep and fundamental and true. Could it be an illusion? Of course. I don't have any reason to think it though because any of the metaphysical ideas that lead me to that conclusion are built ON TOP of the underlying direct experience of logic and free will.

Besides, where science (again afaik) stands on the issue of the determinability of 'stuff' it leaves the door wide open (if not a custom mold for) free will.