coupland's Journal: Whatever happened to free will?

In all this nature vs. nurture debate how did free will get lost in the shuffle? Somehow who someone is became either a product of genetics or of the environment. Where the hell did personal choice disappear to?

So if you're gay you were either born that way or something that happened in your life triggered it? If you choose to kill someone it's either a popped fuse in your brain or a bad childhood? Whatever happened to people being gay because they enjoy it or killers choosing to ignore what their morals are warning them against?

Do we have to absolve ourselves of responsibility for everything bad we ever do? "My parents were to blame," "I'm just different," "I had a rough childhood," "I have a mental illness," "I have no moral compass," or even better "I was just temporarily insane." If this is the case then we also have to absolve ourselves of responsibility for every good thing we do as well. After all, you can't claim being good is "free will" but everything that's bad is "nature or nurture."

Either your actions are a matter of free will and you deserve the praise (and punishment) they merit, or your actions are completely beyond your control and you deserve neither. You can't have it both ways, it's a contradiction.