Free will

                A quote in Enlightened Automata really struck me which was, “destiny itself is determined by particular genies who guide us without our knowing and without our seeing the strings which hold us; at last that in this lower world we are all like real puppets, ignorant and utterly blind slaves.(p. 16)”  It states that we have no will power and that we are guided by external beings, which made me think about the fact that there’s a high chance that we are not in control of ourselves. We are all born with different genes which shape our personalities along with our different experiences. We do not choose our genes we are just born with them which lead us to make decisions in our lives, which can be right or wrong. So if someone steals for example, he is lead to that decision of stealing by the experiences he went through and the genes he was born with, making him not in control of the actions he did. Should he be judged or forgiven because he was just born this way? In my opinion he should be judged to be put as an example to others who may do the same wrong actions, preventing them from doing the same mistakes, but if an afterlife exists he shouldn’t be judged, as it wasn’t his choice to be born this way.