Atheists often argue that we are just our neurons – our behavior is simply a function of our neuronal programming, and our belief that we have free will is an illusion.

And yet these very atheists also write books that aim to convert us to atheism – and they want us to read those books. So, they essentially ask us to use our free will to accept the belief system that claims we don’t have free will. Self-contradictory, isn’t it?

The Bhagavad-gita (16.09) states that godless people destroy their own souls by their incoherent belief systems – systems that lead the world towards destruction. And the notion that we have no free will can well cause social and global chaos and disaster. It makes all legal accountability and culpability meaningless – it implies that murderers are programmed by their brains to murder others, so how can they be held responsible for their actions?

Though their belief system degenerates to incoherence and chaos, still atheists do get something right: programming does exist within us. We are not ourselves programmed machines, but our bodies are. We are souls, distinct from our bodies. And as spiritual beings, we have free will. By using our free will, we can use our bodily machines constructively – and we can even change the programming to some extent.

The more we misidentify with the body, we less we can assert our free will. But the more we realize our identity as distinct from the body, the more we can by drawing on our spiritual intelligence act for our best interests, irrespective of the promptings by the bodily programming. Thus, spiritual wisdom provides a philosophical rationale for our undeniable first-person experience of free will and spiritual practice maximizes our capacity to act freely.

To know more about this verse, please click on the image
Explanation of article:

Podcast:


Download by “right-click and save”