There are things in this world that shouldn’t make me happy, but they do. For example, when I see two dogs humping in the park, it shouldn’t make me happy. But it does.

Today I will experience a new thing that shouldn’t make me happy, but it will. I picked up the latest Time magazine and started reading a story about Albert Einstein, excerpted from the book “Einstein” by Walter Isaacson. According to the excerpt, Einstein didn’t believe in free will. And his opinions on God and morality are virtually identical to mine.

I know philosophy wasn’t Einstein’s primary field. But still, he’s Albert Fucking Einstein. There’s a good chance he put some thought into it.

I’m not saying that my opinions are right just because they are identical to Einstein’s opinions. Einstein wasn’t right all the time. Right and wrong isn’t the point today. While it’s nice to have Einstein on my side, that’s not the part that makes me so happy.

The thing that will make me happy, but shouldn’t, is the comments I will get to this post. I’m practically wetting myself in anticipation of my readers arguing that they are smarter than Einstein, at least on this topic. This might be the happiest day of my life.

By the way, this article has my new favorite quote on free will, attributed to Schopenhauer: “A man can do as he wills, but not will as he wills.” In other words, you are free to do whatever you want. The catch is that you don’t have any control over what you want.

Before the whining begins, allow me to answer the question so many of you have on your mind: Why do I continue to blog on this same worn-out topic of free will?

The real answer is that I have no choice. But I’ll give you some rationalizations because you’ll like those better. Most of my posts have a common theme: We don’t know as much as we think we know. That’s the sort of idea that could end war and famine and poverty.

If you think about it, wars are generally fought because of a false sense of certainty. Usually some leader thinks he is a God, or talks to God, or descended from the Gods, or thinks God gave his people some particular piece of real estate. The leader’s opinion is the most certain in the land. People flock to certainty and adopt the certainty as their own. The next thing you know, stuff is blowing up.

You can take any major problem in the world and identify a key culprit who has more certainty than he or she should. For example, Osama Bin Laden is certain that Allah exists, and he’s certain that humans can know what an omnipotent being wants us to do. That hasn’t worked out well for anyone.

How about the problem of discrimination? The root cause is a bigot’s certainty that ethnicity is more important than individual differences. He shouldn’t be so certain. You don’t need to completely change a bigot’s mind to cure discrimination; it would be a huge step to make him doubt he can accurately judge people by their ethnicity.

There aren’t many ideas that have the potential to change the world. But the idea that we have no free will has to be on the short list. Once you accept free will as an illusion, it necessarily makes you wonder how certain you are about the rest of your reality. When you lose your own irrational sense of certainty, you are less likely to discriminate, to judge, and to believe a lunatic leader who tells you he’s certain.

You can introduce some doubt into your life and still keep your religious faith, morality, and all of the social and psychological benefits you always enjoyed. Faith would be meaningless without a pinch of doubt to give it context. In particular, it would be helpful to doubt that your religious leaders know the mind of God. A little bit of doubt can be a healthy thing.

I’ve noticed that the topic of free will is popping up more than ever in the media. That’s the sign of a viral idea. I’m just doing my part to save the world.

Here’s the link to the article:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1607298,00.html

If you plan to leave a comment supporting the existence of free will or a personal God, do me a favor and start with “I am smarter than Einstein because…”