Nueroscientist Robert Sopolsky – he posits we don’t have free will from a neurological perspective.
Thanks! I’ll give him a look!
I was reading a “debate” on Free Will recently…. (((yikes!)))
As each participant was arguing their points, I could tell that the trouble came from most of the participants having a slightly different definition of free will. Part of me was like “Yes, we definitely have free will, I can freely move my left leg or my right, or my right then left”… but there are some deeper subconscious aspects as you point out that you point out. Then there are actions that we are more or less predisposed to do. (ie. When my plans get changed, I am predisposed to thinking negatively).
If you find any good sources, let me know. I may search through some youtube videos when I get the chance.
To be honest, I don’t know. I know some Christians who hold to such a high view of God’s Sovereignty that He determines everything down to the paths the dust swirling in a shaft of light travel or the tiles drawn in a game of Scrabble – to them, God over-riding Pharaoh and “hardening his heart” shows that God can control free will to the point where a person will do as God wants them to (I imagine that if Pharoah’s heart weren’t hardened, he might have given in a few plagues earlier than God would have wanted). I picture it like an episode of a t.v. show where a character is outrunning something dangerous – and they always choose to run forward, they never veer left or right. That’s what God does, makes it so that you would freely choose to go in a particular action and control circumstances around you to prevent you from freely choosing any other option. I think it was put this way: we have free will insofar as God wills us to have free will, but we wouldn’t ever know that we didn’t have free will in that we would always end up choosing as we do anyway and thinking we were free to do so. I’m a fan of Milky Way Midnight bars and I’ve been wanting to try a Zero bar, but I never get around to it. I have lots of opportunity, but when the two are side by side, I always choose the Midnight over the Zero. Is that because I freely choose the Midnight despite the fact that I want a Zero? Or is it because God wrote us to be creatures of habit by which our free will can be contained and controlled?
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Nueroscientist Robert Sopolsky – he posits we don’t have free will from a neurological perspective.
Thanks! I’ll give him a look!
I was reading a “debate” on Free Will recently…. (((yikes!)))
As each participant was arguing their points, I could tell that the trouble came from most of the participants having a slightly different definition of free will. Part of me was like “Yes, we definitely have free will, I can freely move my left leg or my right, or my right then left”… but there are some deeper subconscious aspects as you point out that you point out. Then there are actions that we are more or less predisposed to do. (ie. When my plans get changed, I am predisposed to thinking negatively).
If you find any good sources, let me know. I may search through some youtube videos when I get the chance.
To be honest, I don’t know. I know some Christians who hold to such a high view of God’s Sovereignty that He determines everything down to the paths the dust swirling in a shaft of light travel or the tiles drawn in a game of Scrabble – to them, God over-riding Pharaoh and “hardening his heart” shows that God can control free will to the point where a person will do as God wants them to (I imagine that if Pharoah’s heart weren’t hardened, he might have given in a few plagues earlier than God would have wanted). I picture it like an episode of a t.v. show where a character is outrunning something dangerous – and they always choose to run forward, they never veer left or right. That’s what God does, makes it so that you would freely choose to go in a particular action and control circumstances around you to prevent you from freely choosing any other option. I think it was put this way: we have free will insofar as God wills us to have free will, but we wouldn’t ever know that we didn’t have free will in that we would always end up choosing as we do anyway and thinking we were free to do so. I’m a fan of Milky Way Midnight bars and I’ve been wanting to try a Zero bar, but I never get around to it. I have lots of opportunity, but when the two are side by side, I always choose the Midnight over the Zero. Is that because I freely choose the Midnight despite the fact that I want a Zero? Or is it because God wrote us to be creatures of habit by which our free will can be contained and controlled?