Free Will, Decision making and religion

[Whateverist]

Is the self necessarily unchanging? The Buddhists make a lot of arguments that there is no unchanging thing in consciousness which would serve as the self. But I wonder why the self has to be considered unchanging; why can't it change along with everything else about us?

Well you can certainly say that, but then what you mean by the "self" is something that is never identifiable. The moment you "identify" the "self" it has already changed into something else entirely. The "self" which was identified no longer exists, in which case, the illusory nature of the "self" is amplified.

However, if what you mean is that the "self" changes constantly under some aspects, and yet stays the same under different aspects, then there is no problem but the one that tries to understand what those unchanging aspects are.

That is why there is a different verb in the French language for "knowing" complex things like people and places than the one used for knowing simpler things. The self is not a simple, static thing to know. It is interactive and can either thrive of wither in response to the conscious choices you make.