Is self-improvement possible without free will?

[Darias]

Neuroscience has found no evidence for conscious free-will. Our subconscious decides to do something 6 seconds before our conscious mind becomes aware of it. We are a product of nature and nurture and are capable of changing our perspective via realization of facts - such as, "I better lose weight if I want to live longer."

But how does that desire to lose weight translate into action? Even Paul went through this sort of problem:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

If I am predisposed to love unhealthy foods and still eat them despite wanting to eat more healthy -- is it possible to have will power at all to change that? Sure the knowledge of the fact that I need to make healthier choices is a motivator, but how does that translate into choice? Can it?

I don't ascribe to free will but I had always thought that at any given moment I had a range of possible actions I could be capable of doing, given my upbringing, my experiences, and biology. Like, I could choose diet Pepsi, diet Mountain Dew, or water. But now I doubt I even have that capacity at all.

If I want to improve myself (health or otherwise), is this even possible? Is the fact that I have a will to do those things an indicator that I have the capacity to do them? Or am I just along for the ride?

[Malachi_Smith]

Like, I could choose diet Pepsi, diet Mountain Dew, or water. But now I doubt I even have that capacity at all.

Or you could choose juice, milk, herbal tea or kombucha.

If I want to improve myself (health or otherwise), is this even possible? Is the fact that I have a will to do those things an indicator that I have the capacity to do them? Or am I just along for the ride?

If you want to improve yourself, then it is possible. But in context of free will, we have to look at where that desire to improve yourself comes from. Did you freely choose to want to improve yourself?

Welcome to the debates, preacher.

human science is till at its infancy compared to all knowledge in the whole universe. Something that we now say is wrong might be proven to be true in the future. so, your neuroscience or whatever science may still be wrong because of the limitation of information the scientist can comprehend up to this moment.

Yes, but that is no reason to discount the current findings of science in favor of superstitions. Good science has a tendency to be cumulative rather than revolutionary. With a few notable and very important exceptions, most scientific discoveries build on existing knowledge rather than refute previously held theories.

and no such thing as predetermination. No one, not even God Himself interferes when determining the future.

Unlike you, I am not so bold as to claim what God can or cannot do. Heck, I don't even know what you mean when you use the word god! However, it does seem that the universe is a combination of determined events and random events. And the random ones only occur at the quantum level.

Although He can actually see the future, but He doesn't make the future that way. So, yes, He already sees (not predict) whether you or me will go to heaven or hell. He already sees how many children we'll have, and how many children those children of ours will have and where they'll go when they die, even if they don't exist yet at the present.

If that is true, then couldn't he also see what the consequences of an intervention would be. He might strike an enemy of the faith blind on some road, seeing that it would convert him to the cause.

As you say, we all have choices. And we don't know which option we will choose. Thus it appears to us, subjectively, that we have free will, largely because we do not understand the process by which we make our own choices. But it is an illusion that our will is truly free.

"And the random ones only occur at the quantum level." At this level is where they must not be random. One purpose of quark investigation is to find location and determine direction. The big-brains think that this will help them predict the future. If you are right that this is random, tell them now.