RE: The burden of proof relating to conciousness, free choice and rationality
February 25, 2012 at 1:54 am
(February 24, 2012 at 9:02 pm)marx_2012 Wrote: if there are absolute scientific laws that govern the universe, then necessarily the universe will be predetermined from its inception at the big bang. The universal scientific laws, that exist independently of human knowledge but will one day be understood by human kind, negate the very nature of free choice and the nature of conciseness in general.
If the universe has been predetermined by the laws of the universe since the big bang then human choices have been predetermined as well. Therefore the basis of rationality, that humans can choose to be rational or irrational becomes obsolete, as does any form of internal or external reflections of the universe since they are also based on the choices made consciously from a mind of free will. This argument leads to a nihilistic interpretation of the universe in which we can not justify or relate to any nature of the universe including reflections or communications about the universe. Therefore I place the burden of proof for atheists to resolve this matter. Please discuss.
The basis of rationality isn't a choice that someone makes. Reason is not quite so arbitrary. Have you ever tried to be completely unreasonable about something by the way? It's difficult to do, not an easy choice to make or maintain (if it's even possible).
If one were to base their conclusions on nothing more than a choice they made, that would not be "rational thought". If our thoughts were predetermined they would still be our thoughts. Perhaps that's exactly what we're dealing with here on this rock. The illusion of choice with no viable alternative. Strong arguments can be made. Why would atheists have a burden of proof for this sort of thing? Didn't see any gods in there.
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