(May 17, 2025 at 4:14 am)Sheldon Wrote:(May 16, 2025 at 9:23 pm)Alan V Wrote: Not really. We have free will even if we only have two bad choices. Freedom only extends our possible uses for our abilities to assess and choose.Exactly, I hate the term free will, as it can never be entirely free, certainly we perceive some autonomy of choice, the question is whether that autonomy ends, in the same place as our perception. Or if it is all allusion, but as another poster has already pointed out, determinism and fatalism carry a burden of proof, and seem for now to be unfalsifiable ideas.
Every restaurant menu, with its limits, would negate our ability to choose by your argument.
On a more amusing note, why would a fatalist or determinist bother trying to find out, if nothing they do will change the result.
Determinism allows for change. What most people are talking about...especially apologists, when they complain about determinism is actually fatalism, but, surprise, magic book says we live in a fatalist universe.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
