Questions for those who believe in free will

[Rational Atheist]

I'm trying to understand the belief in free will. For those who believe in free will, do you believe that your actions are determined by a chain of prior causes or not? If you do, you're a determinist and do not believe in free choice, since you can't control the causes that took place before you were born. If you don't believe your actions are determined by a chain of prior causes, or don't believe that that causal chain extends to before your birth, then you believe that at some point before your action, an event occurred for no reason whatsoever (purely random). How could this possibly get you free will either? No combination of determinism nor indeterminism (randomness) gives you "free will" in the sense of authorship of and responsibility for your actions. How can you believe anyone is ultimately responsible for what they do?

[Seek]

Personally I find the question of free will uninteresting, as it doesn’t guarantee anything and doesn’t prevent suffering. It doesn’t tell you how to lead a good life, merely that its up to you what you do.

[Miles]

Personally I find the question of free will uninteresting, as it doesn’t guarantee anything and doesn’t prevent suffering. It doesn’t tell you how to lead a good life, merely that its up to you what you do.

Can we assume then that you have no interest in sports; movies; music; or books, magazines, and comic books . . . . . . . well, maybe comic books. . . . . . . . because they don't guarantee anything, prevent suffering, or tell you how to lead a good life?


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[Bust Nak]

Science is one of the tools for knowledge concerning the nature of the universe but it’s not the only one. In fact, its truth is built upon (thus, depends on) philosophical truths. I don’t see how science alone can give us an answer to this issue. Science could tell us various observations about what happens in the brain when our will is being exercised but I don’t see how it could say that process is determined or free.

At worse it would provide the empirical evidence needed to support premises of thought experiment a la William L. Craig defense of premise 2 of the cosmological argument. If the best tool is not good enough, worse ones aren't gonna help.

If those are the only two options then being ‘deterministic’ includes both determinism and libertarian free will, moving the disagreement to a different ‘level’ but still the disagreement we are talking about.

Wait, have you ruled out non-deterministic free will? I haven't.

[Seek]

Personally I find the question of free will uninteresting, as it doesn’t guarantee anything and doesn’t prevent suffering. It doesn’t tell you how to lead a good life, merely that its up to you what you do.

Can we assume then that you have no interest in sports; movies; music; or books, magazines, and comic books . . . . . . . well, maybe comic books. . . . . . . . because they don't guarantee anything, prevent suffering, or tell you how to lead a good life?


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Anything we say could potentially be false, because our conclusions rely on our subjective perceptions.

[Seek]

Personally I find the question of free will uninteresting, as it doesn’t guarantee anything and doesn’t prevent suffering. It doesn’t tell you how to lead a good life, merely that its up to you what you do.

Can we assume then that you have no interest in sports; movies; music; or books, magazines, and comic books . . . . . . . well, maybe comic books. . . . . . . . because they don't guarantee anything, prevent suffering, or tell you how to lead a good life?


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No. All I’m saying is that there is no certainty in beliefs.

[Seek]

Most people would agree that humans cannot and do not choose their suffering.

Another argument against free will is that no two situations are truly identical. For example, you continually modify and build new memories. But perhaps this is just part of determinism.

[Miles]

Personally I find the question of free will uninteresting, as it doesn’t guarantee anything and doesn’t prevent suffering. It doesn’t tell you how to lead a good life, merely that its up to you what you do.

Can we assume then that you have no interest in sports; movies; music; or books, magazines, and comic books . . . . . . . well, maybe comic books. . . . . . . . because they don't guarantee anything, prevent suffering, or tell you how to lead a good life?


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Anything we say could potentially be false, because our conclusions rely on our subjective perceptions.

At this very moment I am alive. True or false?


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[Miles]

Personally I find the question of free will uninteresting, as it doesn’t guarantee anything and doesn’t prevent suffering. It doesn’t tell you how to lead a good life, merely that its up to you what you do.

Can we assume then that you have no interest in sports; movies; music; or books, magazines, and comic books . . . . . . . well, maybe comic books. . . . . . . . because they don't guarantee anything, prevent suffering, or tell you how to lead a good life?


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No. All I’m saying is that there is no certainty in beliefs.

Sure there is. I am quite certain in my belief that you exist.

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[Seek]

Personally I find the question of free will uninteresting, as it doesn’t guarantee anything and doesn’t prevent suffering. It doesn’t tell you how to lead a good life, merely that its up to you what you do.

Can we assume then that you have no interest in sports; movies; music; or books, magazines, and comic books . . . . . . . well, maybe comic books. . . . . . . . because they don't guarantee anything, prevent suffering, or tell you how to lead a good life?


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No. All I’m saying is that there is no certainty in beliefs.

Sure there is. I am quite certain in my belief that you exist.

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It’s possible that I know that I exist, but if I do I’ve yet to communicate that objectively.

Call me in 100 years, and maybe I’ll have a definitive answer.

[Miles]

Personally I find the question of free will uninteresting, as it doesn’t guarantee anything and doesn’t prevent suffering. It doesn’t tell you how to lead a good life, merely that its up to you what you do.

Can we assume then that you have no interest in sports; movies; music; or books, magazines, and comic books . . . . . . . well, maybe comic books. . . . . . . . because they don't guarantee anything, prevent suffering, or tell you how to lead a good life?


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No. All I’m saying is that there is no certainty in beliefs.

Sure there is. I am quite certain in my belief that you exist.

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It’s possible that I know that I exist, but if I do I’ve yet to communicate that objectively.

Call me in 100 years, and maybe I’ll have a definitive answer.

So what? This has no bearing on my belief, which is what I'm talking about here.


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