RE: Human Intelligence is an Illusion
December 15, 2018 at 10:13 am
(This post was last modified: December 15, 2018 at 10:22 am by The__Chameleon.)
As I stated, the secular idea of "Nature" is something purely deterministic, mechanical, algorithmic, or random. Something bound to a set of arbitrary laws or conditions, or something that arises from random chance without any form of mindful choice.
The concept of free will therefore is the idea that through conscious contemplation a process can be initiated that is not entirely governed by nature as defined above. If I stub my toe going to the bathroom then it would be my natural reaction to yell in pain, but if there are others sleeping I can use free will to choose to suppress this natural reaction out of conscious consideration of those who are sleeping.
If however the notion to suppress my natural reaction to pain didn't in fact come from my conscious mind but was processed prior to my awareness of it then I have no way of knowing if the methods used were deterministic (x in conditions of y always result in z) or chosen by a consciousness that operates behind the scenes that applies it's own free will. If you are only aware of your destination upon arrival then you can't claim to have chosen the route freely. The secular definition of intelligence can therefore only be applied to mental processes of which one is consciously aware and which one has consciously initiated.
The concept of free will therefore is the idea that through conscious contemplation a process can be initiated that is not entirely governed by nature as defined above. If I stub my toe going to the bathroom then it would be my natural reaction to yell in pain, but if there are others sleeping I can use free will to choose to suppress this natural reaction out of conscious consideration of those who are sleeping.
If however the notion to suppress my natural reaction to pain didn't in fact come from my conscious mind but was processed prior to my awareness of it then I have no way of knowing if the methods used were deterministic (x in conditions of y always result in z) or chosen by a consciousness that operates behind the scenes that applies it's own free will. If you are only aware of your destination upon arrival then you can't claim to have chosen the route freely. The secular definition of intelligence can therefore only be applied to mental processes of which one is consciously aware and which one has consciously initiated.
The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the presenter.
