It really is interesting how often anti-Christian shows, like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and, in today's case, Futurama, end up accidentally making very pro-Christian points. Take the episode "Free Will Hunting". Free will is an inherently Christian concept. Whereas some philosophies deny the existence of free will, Christianity requires free will to exist. But does it exist? In the episode "Free Will Hunting", Futurama demonstrates that it must.
In the episode, one of the main characters, Bender the foul mouthed robot, commits a number of crimes, and is taken to court for it. His lawyer argues that, since Bender is only a robot, he cannot possibly be guilty of committing any crimes, because he was simply doing what he was programmed to do. This defence actually works, and Bender becomes depressed by this.
In his depression, Bender flees to a planet populated entirely by robots. These robots are mostly obviously robotic. Bender even encounters a criminal robot being chased by a police robot in a perfect circle, obviously programmed. So Bender joins a group of robot monks, where he makes peace with the fact he does not have free will. That is, until he comes to be officially initiated by the monks. The head monk opens a compartment in Bender's head and confirms that there is nothing in Bender's free-will port.
Bender, up until this moment, had no idea that he had a free will port. It turns out, the port was left there by "Mom", his creator, in the hope that she could eventually invent a module to be placed in the port, giving robots free will. Bender, hearing this, decides to find out if the module was ever created.
He eventually confronts Mom, and she reveals that although the module was attempted, the Professor (who happened to be Bender's owner) never got past the prototype stage. But Bender doesn't believe this, so he confronts the Professor, who reveals that yes, the free will module does exist, and is fully functional.
This is where Bender's previous display of obvious free will becomes noticeably hindered. Whereas everything he had done up to this point was obviously free, it turns out the Professor had programmed him not to be able to take the free will module, or harm the professor in an attempt to force him to apply it. Bender still wants to take the module and shoot the professor, but is incapable of doing so. But the professor foolishly gives Bender the module anyway, and Bender shoots the Professor. He is then tried in a court, and this time is convicted of attempted murder.
Although the whole premise of the episode is that Bender has no free will, just as many non-Christian philosophies either posit or imply that we do not have free will, the entire episode shows Bender making free willed decisions up until the point where he is incapable of doing so. Yet, even when he is restrained from acting upon his choice, he still makes the choice, further proving that Bender had some limited free will the entire time. The implications of this particular episode are huge.
We, as humans, have free will. The very fact that we are able to discuss free will and have that be a completely rational choice is due entirely to the fact that it is a choice. Otherwise, I would not be free to write this article in defence of free will. I would simply be programmed to believe and profess it, just as you might be programmed to disagree. In such a scenario, these discussions are fruitless.
One difference between us and Bender is that there are no situations in which we are restrained by programming alone. We are often restrained by physics, but not programming. In Bender's case, he was free to want free will, but not free to take the free will module, just as he was free to want to shoot the professor, but not free to actually do so. In both scenarios, Bender was not restrained by anything physical, only by the absence of free will. Because we have free will, physics is the only thing that can stop us.
Say, for example, I wanted to punch someone in the face. I could choose not to act on that desire, reasoning that punching people is wrong. But even if I act on it, there are a number of things that could stop me. A dodge, a miss or a block all result in me unsuccessfully punching that person in the face. However, one thing that will never stop me punching someone is the lack of freedom to do so.
The existence of free will, therefore, is demonstrated by the fact we do have desires, and the ability to choose whether or not we act on them. A real robot would never display the signs of free will that we display, but we display them on a regular basis.
One choice we all have is whether or not we will accept the free gift of eternal life offered to us by our own Creator. Our Creator is not the Mom of the Futurama universe, but rather the Father God of the real universe, who offers us eternal life through faith in the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. You may choose whether or not you accept this, but the choice is yours. You will not be able to appeal to your programming to get a not guilty verdict in His courtroom.