I guess ignorance is bliss when it comes to some things.
You can't say ignorance is bliss because you don't know my view is wrong.
But there's no point getting yourself depressed over something you deem might be true when you don't know for sure. If the knowledge of something makes little to no practical difference in your life (free will being the perfect example) you might as well believe in whatever makes you happier.
But another thing I think about is if reality exists from human perception. Like.. if a lie is believed by everyone on the face of the earth, does that lie become truth since nobody is there to dispute it?
Like.. pre-astronomy the earth might as well be actually flat, and in ancient Greece, there might as well have been a whole pantheon of gods because everyone truly believed it and it influenced how they behaved and what decisions they made.
The lie doesn't become the truth, but if something has no everyday practical relevance it doesn't really matter WHAT you believe. Sometimes it's actually beneficial to take a leap of faith. For example people who "believe in" prayer & more likely to do it obviously. Whether or not prayer works is irrelevant. They believe it works & this belief gives them comfort in hard times. Instead of getting wasted at the bar & chain smoking or drowning their sorrows in ice cream, they pray, which relaxes them, lowers their heart-rate, clears their heads somewhat & with faith in God (real or not) they then act from a more centered place & their lives have a better chance of improving. When they do improve they may thank God rather than thanking themselves & praising their own good habits of prayer/meditation/fasting/whatever but it doesn't really matter, what matters is what works.
That's pretty much my philosophy of life. What matters is what works. If thinking about free-will & God & the devil & all that makes you happy, do that. If studying classical music makes you happy, do that. If chasing girls... you get the idea. But be mindful of what really is working & what isn't & don't lie to yourself because then you'll be frustrated & you won't know why (cause you haven't let yourself know).
I believe in free will because I use my will (even if it's just fake-programmed in-robot-will) & not much makes me happier than using my free will to break a bad habit & create a good one. It's hard when you're in a rut & there are indeed a multitude of factors in my life outside of my control but it's rewarding when it works & when it doesn't it pays to figure out why instead of just thinking "I guess I just suck".
I feel bad for this one uber-critical guy here who's into philosophy but I'm not sure why, anywayz, he's always making super critical cutting judgements upon very superficial understanding of a subject & then gets emotional & makes decisions one way or another based on that. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing (like thinking you know someone or something based on one or two things about them). It's just lazy thinking. But that's a tangent.
BTW, Coolio, who is your avatar, he's funny looking and reminds me a of a buddy of mine from college (who made weird faces like that)?
