SUBCONSCIOUS BELIEF IN FREE WILL AS A MIRACLE
The way humans think about free will often carries an almost mystical aura, even if we don’t consciously realize it. Let’s break it down:
Free will as “miracle/magical” – On a basic level, having the ability to choose freely seems extraordinary. Our lives are full of constraints—biological, social, environmental—so the idea that we can independently decide, almost against these constraints, can feel miraculous. It’s not magic in a literal sense, but psychologically, it can feel like it.
Religion and the occult – Many religious and mystical systems emphasize free will because it’s tied to moral responsibility, destiny, and personal transformation. In Christianity, for example, free will allows for sin and redemption. In occult or mystical traditions, exercising will is often linked to shaping reality or manifesting intentions, which frames the human mind as having a kind of supernatural power.
The subconscious appeal – People might not consciously think “free will is magic,” but the way cultures, stories, and teachings treat it can trigger that intuitive sense. It’s almost like free will is treated as a force that allows humans to “transcend” ordinary limitations.
Miracles and exceptions – The link between free will and the miraculous might also come from the fact that exercising it often leads to unpredictable outcomes. Every choice carries a tiny element of uncertainty—so in a sense, using free will is participating in life’s “miraculous” unfolding.
People feel very confident about free will, but they cannot test whether a person would genuinely choose differently if the exact same situation happened again. So that confidence seems to rely on an untestable assumption, almost like claiming special knowledge they don’t actually have. It is the kind of knowledge a clairvoyant or prophet might imagine.
If we hold to such a basic "miracle", one so internal and personal, it is the reason we incline to other ones.
THE ARGUMENT
Free will is mysterious and cannot be fully explained. If free will exists, no natural, physical, or scientific account currently explains how it works. Its existence would be extraordinary because it appears to override deterministic physical causes. Even those who reject miracles might implicitly treat free will as miraculous if they cannot explain it naturally.
Rejecting physical determinism implies a miraculous cause. If all choices were entirely determined by prior physical events, no real freedom would exist. Choosing something in a non-determined way implies that some extraordinary or miraculous faculty is at work, even if it is subtle or internal. Therefore, hypothetically, assuming free will exists is already a claim of a miraculous phenomenon.
Our perception of free will is incomplete. We experience the outcomes of decisions, but not the mechanism by which choices arise. This limits our ability to verify whether our decisions are truly free. If free will is miraculous, then our sense of making choices is evidence of a phenomenon we cannot fully understand or prove. Free will may transform deterministic forces into freedom. The water of blind chance and brute facts becomes the miracle wine of freedom. So, even if our environment, biology, or prior events influence us, a miraculous free will could hypothetically take these forces and create genuine choices. In this view, freedom is not creating something from nothing but transforming existing conditions into independent action—a miraculous process of “self-transformation.”
Free will is distinct from freedom of action. A person may choose to act in a way they cannot physically perform (e.g., someone paralyzed can decide to hit or save someone but cannot carry it out). Mental freedom can exist even without physical ability. This distinction highlights the hypothetical “miraculous” quality: free will as a faculty operates beyond the constraints of physical circumstances. Some might wonder if wishes send energy out to make changes in the world. If free will is supernatural, it can do that.
Free will could make each individual a personal miracle worker. If free will is supernatural, exercising it could be seen as performing a personal miracle. This does not necessarily require God or external intervention; the miraculous power could be inherent in the individual or supplied by a deity. Hypothetically, this gives a unique sense of agency and autonomy that is extraordinary compared to ordinary natural causation.
Perhaps with miracles, it takes one to know one. Perhaps miracle free will enables us to recognise miracles such as Jesus rising from the dead?
NOTES:
Suppose the free will miracle is true. Your power to work the miracle of free will certainly indicates that you alone are your god. Even if there is a God that does not matter - you are in some way apart and even he cannot intrude or intervene. To that extent you are more than god - you are God. A miracle you work yourself is your testimony to yourself that you are divine. What you experience yourself has more weight than anything outside of you saying it. It tells you more than any miracle worked by any god.
APPENDIX
If free will is a miracle then whose miracle is it?
Am I alone the miracle worker?
Is some kind of spirit doing it? Any spirit would do. It doesn't have to amount to a god.
Is God as in creator of all from nothing doing it?
Is it some kind of joint effort where God and me both do the miracle?
Occam's Razor says that if you need one being to explain an effect then stick with that. One is all you need. You.
Incredibly for religion, even supernaturalists, they do not realise that free will only really fits a worldview that denies there is a God. No other miracle can compare to the miracle of free will. A miracle I do and that is part of me is more convincing than any report of a man rising from the dead. What I see has more force than somebody else seeing it for me!