Free will and sociology

[DavidCro]

OK, here I go again. How do we reconcile free will with sociological norms. To explain, we know how certain group of people acts. Surely, they won’t act indentically, but there will be certain objective truth, a genralization that has it’s roots in reality, shall we say.

For example, generally, people who listen to metal music tend to use drugs. Amishes tend to be more conservative, Catholics tend to, say, vote democrat over republican (or that is how it used to be, at least). So, we see certain shall we say, semi-deterministic line here. How does one then reconcile the doctrine of free will with this? Thanks.

Note: I googled, but found nothing. It’s disappointing that popular you tube and internet catholic apologets don’t refer to this question, which is becoming more and more important, especially in the light of the fundamentalist new atheist movement and scientism. Inter-Christian squabbling is pointless in these times.

Thank you all in advance.

 

[littlebird]

Norms and free will are not interdependent.

Maybe you are suggesting something like the herd instinct or zeitgeist vs free will ?

We all have a free will to make our own choices. The fact that God knows what choices we will make does not change the fact that he allows us to make them.

 

[1Lord1Faith]

In the definition of free will, there isn’t a consideration of normal social conditioning as something that negates free will. Social conditioning is an influence on free will, but not a factor that renders a free will to be no longer free. Something like mental illness or coercion negates free will.

These are just terms used to try to describe something that is actually fluid. So, take all this stuff with that in mind.