FREE WILL VS. PREDESTINATION

I have the lecture for one of my online classes paused as I write this. Currently, we're covering the conflicting notions of free will vs. determination (AKA predestination in a religious sense). The professor is explaining that many scientists have suggested that free will is a false idea and our subconscious minds have made our choices for us before we ever think about them. However, he also notes that, regardless of what the science says, most people reject that notion.

Immediately as he said that, I thought, "Well, the notion of us being controlled by our subconscious is true unless we specifically will it otherwise." Then, the idea came that the natural man is nothing more than someone being controlled by his basic instincts and being a slave to his subconscious. When his mind tells him to be angry, he's angry. When it tells him to be selfish, he's selfish. It sometimes even tells him to be nice, and he's nice at that moment. Nevertheless, even though what he's doing is not wrong in that case, he's still a slave to it and cannot choose for himself how to act.

Only the individual who chooses to shape his or her subconscious through strenuous and consistent effort instead of being shaped by it is the only person who becomes free and able to act for him or herself. Only when we subject it to us rather that subject ourselves to it can we be completely able to act for ourselves instead of acting only in the space that it gives us before taking control.

Once again I find evidence that the guidance that our Heavenly Father gives us is specifically designed to make us free. It's always a reassuring thing to find. :)