RE: Voiding Free Will
July 13, 2012 at 5:41 am
(This post was last modified: July 13, 2012 at 5:45 am by Tempus.)
(July 13, 2012 at 3:00 am)FallentoReason Wrote: Why don't you think we have free will?
If people weren't products of their experiences and biology we wouldn't be able predict anything about them. It's no accident that certain experiences in life, certain brain afflictions, etc, repeatedly lead to similar circumstances and similar choices. Indeed, it's what makes the social sciences -- while not perfect -- possible. If people really possessed this nebulous 'free will', I doubt the world of human affairs would be predictable at all. Also, you can't choose an option you're unaware of, which, to me at least, would seem to be pretty damning against the notion of free will. Some people, like Daniel Dennett, use the term differently but I think it's a little sly of anyone to call that 'free will'. I want to be careful here because I'm not that familiar with him, but Dennett seems to be trying to make determinism more palatable (to those who fear that an absence of free will would just make us automatons) by saying that we also have free will, which he defines as the ability to be 'avoiders'. This is all from memory though, so if I'm misrepresenting Dennett, I apologise. And this isn't a criticism of his conclusions, which, from what I've seen, I agree with.
(July 13, 2012 at 3:00 am)FallentoReason Wrote: I think this question is problematic because it ultimately cancels out faith. You're left with the knowledge of heaven and hell... I doubt anyone after this would live for themselves per se.
Oh yeah, I agree. If you have evidence for a belief it would make faith superfluous. Personally, I'd try and help Satan sack Heaven. I don't want to just sit in Heaven reviewing the scoreboard, I want to see something big go down! Let's see what we can break! Let's show them creationists what entropy really is!
