Oct 1, 2026 · 1 hr 40 min · 12 segments
Send us Fan Mail How much of your life is actually your choice? In this episode of Broken Perspective, Colby and Jeff dive into \*\*free will, determinism, personal responsibility, and the forces…
How much do you think? how you've turned out in life, looking at yourself right now and kind of where you are, how much of that has really been a product of your own personal decisions or just things that are outside of your control, like your family, your upbringing, biology? What are your thoughts?
Well, that's the conundrum, right? It's because I've kind of always felt like I was in complete control of all the things that happened.
I'm responsible for all the things and I believe in complete ownership.
But then when I started taking this dive and started thinking about it, I'm not saying I disagree, but I definitely can see how things that were never in my control have definitely had a profound impact.
Obviously, my parents had me, so I have that DNA.
So the parts of my mom, the parts of my dad combined.
And that equals me.
And then I was born in this area.
Okay, that's going to have an influence where I lived, where I was raised, how they parented are all going to have an influence.
And none of that was truly in my control.
the kids I went to school with, where I went to school, none of those things were my choice.
And so I think all of those things have a profound impact on a person to help guide them through some of the decisions that are made when they do get control.
But Some people would say that physics believes in an overall cause and effect.
And it says that those things have been predetermined by the DNA, by all the things I just previously talked about, are going to basically lead me to make the decisions that I ultimately make, that it was never really a choice for me.
That the things I like, the things I don't like, have been determined by cause and effect of things that are outside of my control.
And so
now the question I guess really is how much is, how much of what your experience in life is, is determined by that biology, those things that are outside of your control and how much really does come down to your response to those things and your decision-making because we have this other element of free will.
Right.
Right.
Like, and I think we've talked about this before in some of our, our conversations, maybe our first one is like, you can't control your, A lot of these things, like you just mentioned, your upbringing, your geolocation, the family you're born into, your genetics, a lot of that you can't control, but you can control your response to the circumstances and the things that you're confronted with, right? Now, obviously this is making me think like, at what point in life does your response have more of an impact? Like as a kid, for example, You know, you really are just kind of going with the flow.
You don't have a lot of autonomy as a child, right? Like you can't say, I want to move.
I want to leave.
I want to go to a different, I mean, you can say these things, but you probably are.
Right.
What you want is not likely to really sway your parents into the decisions that are made for you.
How much do you think? how you've turned out in life, looking at yourself right now and kind of where you are, how much of that has really been a product of your own personal decisions or just things that are outside of your control, like your family, your upbringing, biology? What are your thoughts?
Well, that's the conundrum, right? It's because I've kind of always felt like I was in complete control of all the things that happened.
I'm responsible for all the things and I believe in complete ownership.
But then when I started taking this dive and started thinking about it, I'm not saying I disagree, but I definitely can see how things that were never in my control have definitely had a profound impact.
Obviously, my parents had me, so I have that DNA.
So the parts of my mom, the parts of my dad combined.
And that equals me.
And then I was born in this area.
Okay, that's going to have an influence where I lived, where I was raised, how they parented are all going to have an influence.
And none of that was truly in my control.
the kids I went to school with, where I went to school, none of those things were my choice.
And so I think all of those things have a profound impact on a person to help guide them through some of the decisions that are made when they do get control.
But Some people would say that physics believes in an overall cause and effect.
And it says that those things have been predetermined by the DNA, by all the things I just previously talked about, are going to basically lead me to make the decisions that I ultimately make, that it was never really a choice for me.
That the things I like, the things I don't like, have been determined by cause and effect of things that are outside of my control.
And so
now the question I guess really is how much is, how much of what your experience in life is, is determined by that biology, those things that are outside of your control and how much really does come down to your response to those things and your decision-making because we have this other element of free will.
Right.
Right.
Like, and I think we've talked about this before in some of our, our conversations, maybe our first one is like, you can't control your, A lot of these things, like you just mentioned, your upbringing, your geolocation, the family you're born into, your genetics, a lot of that you can't control, but you can control your response to the circumstances and the things that you're confronted with, right? Now, obviously this is making me think like, at what point in life does your response have more of an impact? Like as a kid, for example, You know, you really are just kind of going with the flow.
You don't have a lot of autonomy as a child, right? Like you can't say, I want to move.
I want to leave.
I want to go to a different, I mean, you can say these things, but you probably are.
Right.
What you want is not likely to really sway your parents into the decisions that are made for you.
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