(February 8, 2020 at 11:20 am)John 6IX Breezy Wrote:(February 8, 2020 at 10:49 am)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: I've just discovered where my neighbour keeps tens of thousands of dollars in her house. She routinely leaves the door unlocked, and is away for a large part of the day. I have every opportunity to walk into her home and take the money. I decline to do so. Does this make me an automaton?
Boru
Based on the description it doesn't sound like you are. I say this because most psychologists are more comfortable speaking about free won't rather that free will. Declining to do something sounds similar to the conscious experience of impulse control most people associate with free will (see Filvenich, et al., 2012).
Reference: Filvenich, E., Kuhn, S., and Haggard P. (2012) Intentional inhibition in human action: The power of 'no.' Neuroscience and Behavioral Reviews, 36, p. 1107-118.
Agreed. So what would be the objection to God having created every human being to freely act or not act in a manner pleasing to God? You would always be free to do x but you would always freely choose to do not-x, and vice versa. All possibility of sin and the attendant punishment would be removed without the abrogation of free will.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson