Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: September 16, 2026, 1:32 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Free Will -- the "materialist string" pulls both ways.
#4
RE: Free Will -- the "materialist string" pulls both ways.
(April 3, 2016 at 9:21 am)Jehanne Wrote:
(April 3, 2016 at 8:37 am)RozKek Wrote: Thanks for not being pessimistic about it.

I dislike when people turn towards a negative side instantly "Well then I might aswell do nothing because I'll have no choice".
Makes no sense imo. They're just using it as an excuse to be lazy etc.

Good parenting responds to this -- setting expectations for the kiddo, encouragement, showing by good example, rewards (personal and financial), etc.

Do deadbeats have "free will"?  No, of course not, but neither do industrious persons, either.  Does anyone here in the workforce think that you have a choice as to whether you want to get out of bed and go to work, or just stay home and watch TV?  No, absolutely not; going to work is not a choice.  You have to go, and there is no alternative but to go and to do the very best job that you can.  I could not "choose" go to work any more than I could "choose" to stick my hand in a garbage disposal, turning it on.  Just as my neural circuits prevent the latter, so, too, they compel the former.  It just not matter at all whether I "feel" like going to work; I must go to work.  My entire life depends on going to work, and so, I go, and I have no choice in the matter.  My brain compels me to go, whether I "want" to or not.

Even without realizing it we've always lived as if we had no free will.
Hey, you got a headache? Take this pill.
You can't think properly and your decision making is bad? Maybe you haven't gotten enough sleep.
You have problems and/or mental issues? Take these drugs and get a therapist

Those are a few examples of how we're affected by external stimuli and we're just responding to the environment. 

I myself don't know if free will exists or not, but my bets are on that it doesn't exist based on our current scientific knowledge. And I don't believe that the universe is deterministic if it matters.
Reply



Messages In This Thread
RE: Free Will -- the "materialist string" pulls both ways. - by deleteduser12345 - April 3, 2016 at 8:37 am
RE: Free Will -- the "materialist string" pulls both ways. - by deleteduser12345 - April 3, 2016 at 10:05 am
RE: Free Will -- the "materialist string" pulls both ways. - by deleteduser12345 - April 3, 2016 at 10:39 am
RE: Free Will -- the "materialist string" pulls both ways. - by deleteduser12345 - April 3, 2016 at 1:16 pm

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Are god and religion ways of saying "screw you" to nature? ShinyCrystals 18 5858 January 8, 2024 at 12:27 pm
Last Post: Angrboda
  No soul? No free will and no responsibility then, yet the latter's essential... Duty 33 10777 August 26, 2020 at 4:35 pm
Last Post: HappySkeptic
  So In Deity-Free World: Financial Inclusion! mascale 6 2110 August 26, 2019 at 10:09 am
Last Post: tackattack
  Amending my Good and Kindly ways The Valkyrie 27 10474 September 12, 2017 at 7:49 pm
Last Post: The Valkyrie
  I'm sick of hearing about the "Five Ways"! Asmodee 46 17143 January 19, 2017 at 3:27 pm
Last Post: robvalue
  Free will and humans ErGingerbreadMandude 176 41825 March 18, 2016 at 2:19 am
Last Post: IATIA
  Free will and you. deleteduser12345 48 14838 March 17, 2016 at 7:56 am
Last Post: ErGingerbreadMandude
  Ways to introduce people to Atheism? Veritas 24 9800 December 24, 2015 at 1:20 am
Last Post: ErGingerbreadMandude
  Free Municpal Services ? vorlon13 7 3169 July 21, 2015 at 7:59 pm
Last Post: Spooky
  god has no free will dyresand 41 17093 December 16, 2014 at 7:11 pm
Last Post: IATIA



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)