[PLUG-TALK] Re: PLUG-talk Digest, Vol 7, Issue 6

Russell Senior seniorr at aracnet.com
Fri Apr 8 22:00:47 UTC 2005


>>>>> "Russ" == Russ Johnson <russj at dimstar.net> writes:

RJ> Free Will is the ability to make a non-predetermined decision.
RJ> Predetermined is something that is known, by any entity (such as
RJ> God).

By way of preface, my teachers always used to write notes home that
said: "Does not use his time wisely".  I guess that characteristic
hasn't gone away yet.

I just want to interject something here: I believe that everything in
the universe basically *is* predetermined.  The universe and its
physical laws are one big integration machine and that the initial
conditions determined everything (though you don't necessarily know in
advance what the future conditions will be).  We don't perceive that.
Our brains make what seem like free choices, but those choices are
made ultimately on the basis of uncountable numbers of events that
came before, and though we might wrestle with them, that wrestling was
also predetermined.  If you want to call what set the initial
conditions God, be my guest.  At that point, the notion of God reduces
to something fairly trivial.

Okay, that's it for now.


-- 
Russell Senior         ``I have nine fingers; you have ten.''
seniorr at aracnet.com



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