RE: Free Will Theodicy
July 13, 2023 at 1:49 am
(This post was last modified: July 13, 2023 at 1:55 am by Bucky Ball.)
I have references from a whole bunch of research articles and papers re free will. I'll try to find them.
Basically the title (Free Will) is based on Medieval Moral Theology, where sin is defined as having (needing) ALL of the elements of a decision available in one's brain at the time of a decision, or it's not really "free". We know that is FAR from true, and there is also the disturbing business of the parts of a brain involving a decision light up in fMRI and other scans, seconds before the person in the experiment says they decided.
It appears much of decision-making is subconscious, and done before we are aware of it, thus making the term (free-will) meaningless. I think the latest stuff I read has the consensus at about 95 % subconscious. They say it's like a war going on in the brain, most of which we are not aware of. I get the problem of predestination, but, (the topic of criminal responsibility always comes up here
), ... the experiments are always in a "very short term" context.
One could conceivably put yourself in, or be in, ... an environment where you would decide you want to learn behaviors, practice behaviors, or just do behaviors (like "I am going on a specific diet to improve my health"), and then do just that (or not), and you would be "free" to decide to do that and then do it, with practice the behavior becomes established. It would come down to individual small momentary choices at the time you eat, but long term, you have made a free choice to change and act in a certain way, which you are "free" to do. The problem is "why would you want to decide in the first place to do that, ... and that may relate to prior personal historical "input". So long term, you may have free will in a broad sense, about many things. It's probably a combo of both short and long term decisions.
Basically the title (Free Will) is based on Medieval Moral Theology, where sin is defined as having (needing) ALL of the elements of a decision available in one's brain at the time of a decision, or it's not really "free". We know that is FAR from true, and there is also the disturbing business of the parts of a brain involving a decision light up in fMRI and other scans, seconds before the person in the experiment says they decided.
It appears much of decision-making is subconscious, and done before we are aware of it, thus making the term (free-will) meaningless. I think the latest stuff I read has the consensus at about 95 % subconscious. They say it's like a war going on in the brain, most of which we are not aware of. I get the problem of predestination, but, (the topic of criminal responsibility always comes up here
), ... the experiments are always in a "very short term" context. One could conceivably put yourself in, or be in, ... an environment where you would decide you want to learn behaviors, practice behaviors, or just do behaviors (like "I am going on a specific diet to improve my health"), and then do just that (or not), and you would be "free" to decide to do that and then do it, with practice the behavior becomes established. It would come down to individual small momentary choices at the time you eat, but long term, you have made a free choice to change and act in a certain way, which you are "free" to do. The problem is "why would you want to decide in the first place to do that, ... and that may relate to prior personal historical "input". So long term, you may have free will in a broad sense, about many things. It's probably a combo of both short and long term decisions.
Every religion is true one way or another. It is true when understood metaphorically. But when it gets stuck in its own metaphors, interpreting them as facts, then you are in trouble. - Joseph Campbell 
Militant Atheist Commie Evolutionist
Militant Atheist Commie Evolutionist
