To the deterministic materialist my argument holds no water, which is fine.
I personally do accept the continuity of the natural laws and fully acknowledge that causation provides a deterministic word view, but I do not ascribe to materialism in the fullest extent. I don't think magic pixies make choices for us, or that we are fated to a certain destiny. I simply believe that the conscious mind, separate from the brain mechanism, provides us with the ability to abstract and to make decisions based on whims. Our physical existence is subject to determined physics, but we have the ability to enact our own causation through the non-material aspect of our conscious.
Not to get too off topic, but let me ask you this: Are you the same person as you were 5 years ago, in so much as your identity hasn't changed? If you are, then what makes that so?
I personally do accept the continuity of the natural laws and fully acknowledge that causation provides a deterministic word view, but I do not ascribe to materialism in the fullest extent. I don't think magic pixies make choices for us, or that we are fated to a certain destiny. I simply believe that the conscious mind, separate from the brain mechanism, provides us with the ability to abstract and to make decisions based on whims. Our physical existence is subject to determined physics, but we have the ability to enact our own causation through the non-material aspect of our conscious.
Not to get too off topic, but let me ask you this: Are you the same person as you were 5 years ago, in so much as your identity hasn't changed? If you are, then what makes that so?
Brevity is the soul of wit.
