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It is commonly known that we human beings tend to find comfort in what is predictable and familiar, and likewise, we’ve used this familiarity to instantiate customs and traditions that have proven useful in our understanding of our place in reality. Take political traditions, for example. The British monarch, though lacking in much power and sovereignty nowadays, still manages to stimulate the hearts and souls of many Brits. Or, of course, Christmas, which many who grew up in the West are succinctly familiar with, regardless of whether they adhere to Christianity. The question is, why do we enjoy experiencing the same kinds of proceedings over and over? What purpose does tradition serve in our understanding of ourselves?
Tradition serves a few certain functions among many others. Firstly, tradition allows cultures or ethnolinguistic groups to find among themselves a common identity. The traditions of Judaism foster that sense of identity and exception from other religious and cultural adherents. Indeed, there is an evolutionary utility for stoking the flames of tradition. We want to maintain the integrity and survival of our given tribe, and reiterating the same process cyclically allows us to garner a more keen sense of distinction from the “other.” Therefore, tradition in one guise allows a people group to establish various customs and belief systems, religious, political, cultural, etc.
I believe it is pertinent for us to realize the utility of tradition, yet at the same time acknowledge its limitations. Generally, having some kind of procession that allows us to find joy in a collective sense of identity can be both beneficial and useful. However, the usage of tradition can, over generations, become problematic, mainly due to it being used as a means of abuse through power structures. It can be commonly observed in the various traditions of Christianity, or any other highly organized religious system, that tradition may be used to enact abuse either through familial/domestic settings, political settings, or otherwise. It can be said that many have faced the trepidations wrought on them by their family and peers with the pretense of religious or political tradition as enforcement. On the other hand, though traditional practices and outlooks continue to prove problematic as the world modernizes and liberalizes, it can be said that they can still, in many times and places, be used for the sake of comradery and the renewal of collective identities for the greater good.
How about "The Nature of Free Will in a Deterministic Universe"?Well, it is presumed that the nature of causality in this universe implies a fundamental principle: You cannot have an uncaused cause.When we analyze the activity of our nervous system, we find that one state of the nervous system must inevitably lead to the next.Therefore, as us being the conscious extension of our bodies, how can we know whether or not we possess agency if we are subservient to our physical makeup? I suspect that we possess something that transcends physical processes, but that is only my opinion. If we do happen to possess this transcendent quality, then we are able to affect our brains in such a way where the chain of physical causality is to a degree irrelevant. - This is an underdeveloped stab at the free will debate. Take it with a pinch of oregano.
