'choosing' thoughts.

[athoughtfulman]

Where did the information come from?

I can see how it looks like it springs out of nothing, so I know where you are coming from. But I don't believe there ever was necessarily nothing. Who knows? If there was, then sure, something came out of nothing. If it wasn't, then there has always been a continuing equation, with no beginning and no end.

Why did there ever have to be nothing? And how would we know anyway?

I'm not an expert on evolution, so correct me if I'm wrong, but if you follow evolution back to it's beginning, isn't something coming out of nothing? And if so, why did it do it before? Where did it get the information to begin the process? If evolution never had a beginning, why is it so hard to believe that determinism never had a beginning?

I think where we differ is that you are looking at the equation in the big picture, where as I'm looking at it specifically within our lifetimes. I just believe that we don't have as much free will as we think, and think it makes more sense to believe that it doesn't actually exist as we think it does. There may be levels of this, such as some occasions when we do choose, but whether it's at the front of our mind, deep in our subconscious, or when we are born, I couldn't say.

Again, neither of us can observe the process, so either of our opinions is as valid as the others, though I'm interested in your answers to the above questions.