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Question: Free will and determinism!?
How many of you believe everything in our lives are pre-determined
and there is no such thing as free will!?
I was watching a youtube video on this and the girl gave this scenario!.

If you got food poisoning from chicken as a child,
and for dinner your mother made you a chicken sandwhich
you would say no, you didnt want that sandwhich!.
This means that, because you had food poisoning, you will not eat the chicken sandwhich!.
She states that all of our decsions are cause and effect!.
BUT! The thing about this, is that you CHOOSE not to eat the sandwich because of a bad experience!. Not because you cant!.
Tell me your opinions!.Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
But, the child would eat that chicken sandwich if someone pointed a gun to her head and demanded that she eat it!. The child still choses not to eat the sandwich, and she does it for the simple reason of not getting sick!.

I hear the arguments for determinism!. They make one error: They assume that the mind obeys the same kind of causal laws that objects in the physical worlds obey, such as human bodies!.

Reality is more complex than scientists realize!. Consciousness is not like other things: our minds are different!. Reality consists of finite consciousnesses with a common physical world!. Our picture of The Real must expand and become more realistic!. This will happen over time!.

Comments for Urbane Radio:

(1) I'm impressed with this question you asked:

"[I]f i was unable to remember anything, how could you prove to me that i existed 5 minutes ago!?"

(2) But, how do you know that it is possible that the future already exists!? What say you!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

You're right!. Everything we do is of free choice!. In fact, we are doomed to be free!. We are constantly making choices and as a result we are not who we are!. Kinda weird but think about this: You were not the person you were 2 years ago because you made choices, you are not the person you were 10 months ago because you made choices, you are not the person who you were 7 days ago because you made choices, you are not the person who you were 1 hour ago and you are not the person you were 1 second ago!. Even as you speak, you change because you made choices and as a result your freedom makes you a stranger to your own self!. When you refuse to make choices, you die!. also the whole concept of causation is flawed because when we think we do something because of a cause-effect scenario, we are still choosing to do it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Its a tricky one because you can't DISPROVE a pre-determined path!.

It's not so much that you COULDN'T have eaten the chicken sandwich rather than that you DIDN'T!. Since it's in the past, therefore the second outcome of eating the chicken at that precise moment in time will never come to fruition!.

Because it's already been and gone, you can't prove to yourself that you could have eaten it then!. Likewise, if you did eat the sandwich, you can't prove that you could have not eaten it!.


It's a conundrum that will never be solved until we invent a time machine to smack ourselves just before we take that fateful, life-changing bite!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

That is not the best argument, sorry!. I think you need to read more about psychology, theoretical physics, evolutionary psychology, and quantum mechanics!. Then you should have you answer!. I wrote an essay on that about a week ago for fun!. I'm an atheist, but I believe that everything has already been determined in life!. I'd show you what I wrote, but I don't want to have it stolen, sorry!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I do not think that everything is predetermined!.!.!. for saying that they can make thier own decisions!.!.!. it is strictly the mind that is making the choice!.!.!. in the very moment of the making!.!.!. decisions cannot be predetermined!.!.!.!. and they cannot be planned out!.!.!.!. the world changes every second!.!.!. therefore nothing can be planned out, because something could go wrong and change the whole outlining of what was supposed to happen!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I do not subscribe to the notion of predetermination!. It just doesn't make sense!. If there is predetermination, I need not look before crossing the street, seek medical treatment, or make any decisions!. If there is predetermination, I cannot be held responsible for any harm I may cause another human being because it would not be my fault because I did what I was destined to do!. Predetermination removes guilt!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think the concept of free will is most useful when thinking of other's keeping us from doing what we want to do!.
When you think of it from a scientific standpoint it doesn't seem to really make sense!. I mean, how do you make decisions!? What determines what you want!? It seems to me either we choose things because of reasons or we just randomly choose them!. Reasons can always be traced to something!. And if it's random, we really don't have control over randomness, otherwise it wouldn't be randomness!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

pre-determined choice, in a pre-determined life!.!. pehaps until,
determinism and free will, are at questionable risk, to balance!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

yea everything was predetermined BUT we get to CHOOSE to have a "good" predetermined life or a "bad" pretermined life!.if that makes any sense!.!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

think about this
http://ihateliz!.com/!?id=tz5fohjonik8jzlh!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I believe it is free will that dominates the human individual life!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

eat the sandwich

Hey presto, theory in the binWww@QuestionHome@Com

Everything in our lives is predetermined save ourselves, we are the agents of freewill and self-determination!. As if there were no independent will, no one would be observing the matter of, no one would be noticing the possibility of something that could content for us, or that we may contend for!.

This is very rarely is the case that a conundrum would become the answer to a straightforward question, but this case I see this happening!. The conundrum is this: We either believe in freewill, or in destiny!. If we believe in freewill we aim to determine our courses of life, but on the other hand, if we believe in destiny then we aim to find our destiny!. We aim to seek out as what our destiny may hold for us in the future!. In either case we have no choice but to act freely, so that we may find what is the best way forward, of course of action for us, so that we may follow that course of action, something that require of us the full use of our willpower!.

This is the very objective nature of your question that should make you realise that the it is the selfsame proof of the matter, and the answer to your questions!. I would not worry much about the chicken and the little girl, but I would pay full attention to the way you think, fully critically and deterministically, as if you can the question freely then there is something aside!.

And lastly, I give you one analogy for the purpose of understanding the concept somewhat closely the way I do!. Imagine the fixed tracks of a railway as course of destiny that each train is bound to follow, and each passenger in the train is destined for the purpose of that journey to travel on!. Now, however rigid and fixed those tracks may be, there is always certain amount flexibility for the train parts to move independently for their own purpose!.

If we imagine the train to be the world, that is largely predictable, as in the motions of the planets, the Moon and the Sun, and rotation of seasons!. The passengers within the train have relatively greater degree of freedom as they can move about, go to the dining car for a cup of tea and a sandwich, sit in their seats, read, or go to sleep!. This is the freedom we enjoy in this world!. We can make our journey a happy one, or a sad one!. This is up to us, through our conduct and behaviour with the rest of the people on board!. The fact is that we are never alone!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

the example is just an example of basic psychology and basing decisions on past experiences, we all do this!. this has nothing to do with the idea that my life could or could not be predetermined!.

cause and effect are one thing, but just for fun lets say this; no matter how many possibilities your mind can conjure up, only one event will take place at a particular moment in time!. theres no going back to change it!. we are always moving forward!. a process in constant change!. if i was unable to remember anything, how could you prove to me that i existed 5 minutes ago!? 10 minutes ago!? our justification for the past is that we experienced it!. we have yet to experience the future, but does that mean it does not already exist!? if my consciousness can only be cognizant of the present moment, then it stands to reason i would consider every thought, action or any new perception as original only because i cannot experience it beforehand even if it is already laid out

i cant tell you how the movie will end, ive not seen it before, but im pretty sure the kids up in that booth arent making the film as its shown to me

*oh, i dont have a clue if the future already exists, but of course i dont know that it doesnt either!. like i said, we've yet to experience the future therefore there is no justification for its existence prior!. but, that does not equate to an impossibility!. if time were to completely reverse, would everything occur just as you remember or even see on a video!? logically it seems that it would, but if the future is unpredictable than why not the past too!? i would still have free will, right!? or is free will shattered by knowing what will happen!?

*whether seeking to define or reveal a destiny, people are existing in the same wayWww@QuestionHome@Com