RE: Free will/evil/punishment
June 19, 2015 at 9:46 pm
(This post was last modified: June 19, 2015 at 9:51 pm by Mudhammam.)
(June 19, 2015 at 7:03 pm)bennyboy Wrote: Nestory, I'll avoid the quote wall, but I have a question:Yeah, that's something I kind of realize I waffled on a bit... the thing is, maybe there isn't a difference in reality other than the proximity and strength of the cause in relation to the present action, and yet, human beings seem entirely reasonable (don't they?) in making such distinctions when making moral judgments. Take A) a person who grows up in a fractured household in which they suffer physical, mental, emotional abuse and then later becomes an alcoholic sociopath, B) a person who grows up in a loving, affluent home and enjoys all the privileges a stable environment can supply but has an inflated sense of entitlement, and C), a person somewhere in between the lives of A and B but who unfortunately contracts a brain tumor in which they experience blackouts involving erratic behavior, and all three end up partaking in the gang rape and murder of a woman, are they all equally responsible...? ....and for which part? The crime itself? But if it was inevitable, how could they be? And if it wasn't inevitable, isn't that where free will should be inserted?
How, exactly, would you define the difference between influences and compulsions? Does it really matter if the subtle waft of baked goods, barely noticed by me, inevitably causes me to buy some bread, or if my wife threatening to divorce me if I forget to buy fucking bread again inevitably causes me to buy some bread? Unless someone phsycially controls me, like with a brain implant or something, it seems that both purchases are an expression of my self-- specifically an expression of the self as it seeks to function well in its environment.
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza