Free Will Exists

I see my opponent has already violated the rules of the debate structure. His role in the first round was merely to accept, not to post an argument. This is his first debate however, so I would say it's up to the discretion of the voters as to whether or not he should lose conduct points for this. That aside, I hope my opponent will follow the debate structure from here on out. EXPLANATION OF MY POSITIONEvery single thing we do, we do for a reason. They may not always be the best reasons in retrospect, but the fact remains, everything we do is motivated by some reason. When you think about this in passing, you may not realize the implications in their fullness. But if you focus on this fact for a little bit, you will realize that we don't actually have a choice in what we do. Everything that we do is because of a set of conditions preceding the action. Your mood, your memory of past events, your personality, and the external conditions around you, all of these things force you into a choice. Some people might latch onto the word 'choice' and say, "Yes, but he still chose that!" Yes, he 'chose' that. But, if he chose the option that he did, based on all the aforementioned conditions, then, he isn't really choosing, so much as reacting to the scenario. And you could repeat the scenario over and over again, and you would find that this person would choose the same option for the same reasons every time.I'll do some examples. Let's say you're in the desert, and you're extremely thirsty. Suddenly, you find a bottle of unopened water. You can pick it up, touch it, you know it's not a mirage or hallucination. What would you do? Your actions are determined by conditions, and what are the conditions here? Extremely thirsty, in the middle of a desert, and you just found a bottle of water. You're going to drink that bottle of water of course. And you could keep going back in time, to that same exact moment, and you would keep drinking the water, because the factors are all the same, and so too is your reaction to them. That one is a good starter, because the factors involved are very simple, but it is not a good final example, because of its simplicity. So let's do something more complicated. Let's say you're running in a race. You've reached the final mile, and going at a pace that indicates to you that you could be on the verge of setting a new record for the race. But, you've been hauling balls this whole race, and you're starting to tire. You're in pain from being exhausted and still running. So at this current juncture, it would seem that there are two paths you could take. You could succumb to the exhaustion and slow down, or you could take the pain and try to set the record. The number of options are the same as in the water in the desert option, but the factors that play into your action are more complicated. First, what kind of personality do you have? Are you someone who focuses on personal achievement? Do you get your feeling of worth from winning? Or are you a less competitive person? What kind of personality you have is also affected by other factors that have been present all your life. We're all born with some kind of disposition, and as we each experience things, they shape our personality. For instance, maybe when you were younger, you felt that your parents were happier with you when you were winning and competing, so your personality came to value competition and personal achievement more. That's not something that you actually choose, it's something that comes about thanks to a set of factors determining an outcome. Secondly, how many races have you been in before? Races are generally painfully tiring experiences, and so the more you've been in, the higher a tolerance for pain you will have developed. This is an important factor when it comes to whether or not you will succumb or push on. So your past experiences will affect both your personality and your pain tolerance. These two traits will either be strong enough to overcome the urge to stop, and you will push on, or they will not be strong enough, and you will not push on. But the fact is, these factors are the things that really decide the outcome, not you.One thing I would like to head off right now, is a counter point I've had my friends try to posit to me. After I get talking about how all our actions are reactions to factors, they say, 'Well, we still choose how we perceive things. You're still in control of how your personality sees things.' Simply put, no. What your personality is today is the result of a series of events so complicated, lengthy, and interconnected, that you would literally have to be omniscient to see how each experience exactly affects who you are today. But make no mistake, though we cannot comprehend every fine detail of this truth, one can see in more simplified examples that everything is action and reaction, and that your personality is simply a product of this, and your 'decisions' are 'chosen' by this personality.Thanks for reading.