Musings on Free Will
phukyanks
Published
07/01/2013
This is the observation discovered from a discussion today in my "Theistic Predilections" gallery.
I want to see if it can be refuted.
The premise:
A true atheist can only believe they are a biological machine, with no free will, and all decisions they make are simply reactions to stimuli by ingredients. Additionally, a person believing in free will, can only have a supernatural explanation for it.
The thesis:
Free will can only be quantified scientifically as a collection of ingredients reacting to stimuli. The ingredients being, brain chemistry, experience and genetics. The stimuli pertaining to free will, is that which has forced a decision to be made. As fire or water is to a chemical reaction, change in environment or presentation of a problem is the stimuli which forces a decision (reaction) to be made.
A person must invoke the supernatural to believe they have free will, because there is no scientific basis and cannot be any scientific basis for true "free will".
This is because as the laws of physics dictate; every action must have an equal and opposite reaction, and hence everything must be predetermined, and there can be no possible reaction which decides its own fate, only that reactions are pre-determined by ingredients reacting to stimuli. To believe in free will, is to believe a reaction can be truly undetermined and indeterminable - something never witnessed and positively impossible to scientific reasoning.
But is psychology physics? Yes, according to scientists, every phenomena is explained by physics. As Ernest Rutherford, nuclear physicist says: ""All Science is Either Physics or Stamp Collecting".
It means that all other sciences reduce to physics. Biology is explainable with chemistry, chemistry is explainable with physics. Likewise psychology is determined by biology interacting with experience and experience is determined by physics in relation to psychology - which is related to experience which is related to physics, until you return to the event of birth where the only basis for interpretation of experience is Genetics - which is determined by physics. Physics is the root explanation of all observed phenomena.
Conclusion: If you are an atheist/naturalist who believes in free will, you hold an untenable position. There cannot be free will if everything can be explained by the laws of science alone. If you believe you possess free will a supernatural explanation must be invoked, and I would suggest to you that this explanation be: God. God gave you free will, because he is NOT a dictator, because he wants you to come to him of your own accord.
As Aristotle puts it: "If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person." It is your choice to listen to the wrong music, as it is your choice to commit any immorality, but it is your free choices which define your character, and the nature of your character will either lead you to God, or away.
I want to see if it can be refuted.
The premise:
A true atheist can only believe they are a biological machine, with no free will, and all decisions they make are simply reactions to stimuli by ingredients. Additionally, a person believing in free will, can only have a supernatural explanation for it.
The thesis:
Free will can only be quantified scientifically as a collection of ingredients reacting to stimuli. The ingredients being, brain chemistry, experience and genetics. The stimuli pertaining to free will, is that which has forced a decision to be made. As fire or water is to a chemical reaction, change in environment or presentation of a problem is the stimuli which forces a decision (reaction) to be made.
A person must invoke the supernatural to believe they have free will, because there is no scientific basis and cannot be any scientific basis for true "free will".
This is because as the laws of physics dictate; every action must have an equal and opposite reaction, and hence everything must be predetermined, and there can be no possible reaction which decides its own fate, only that reactions are pre-determined by ingredients reacting to stimuli. To believe in free will, is to believe a reaction can be truly undetermined and indeterminable - something never witnessed and positively impossible to scientific reasoning.
But is psychology physics? Yes, according to scientists, every phenomena is explained by physics. As Ernest Rutherford, nuclear physicist says: ""All Science is Either Physics or Stamp Collecting".
It means that all other sciences reduce to physics. Biology is explainable with chemistry, chemistry is explainable with physics. Likewise psychology is determined by biology interacting with experience and experience is determined by physics in relation to psychology - which is related to experience which is related to physics, until you return to the event of birth where the only basis for interpretation of experience is Genetics - which is determined by physics. Physics is the root explanation of all observed phenomena.
Conclusion: If you are an atheist/naturalist who believes in free will, you hold an untenable position. There cannot be free will if everything can be explained by the laws of science alone. If you believe you possess free will a supernatural explanation must be invoked, and I would suggest to you that this explanation be: God. God gave you free will, because he is NOT a dictator, because he wants you to come to him of your own accord.
As Aristotle puts it: "If one listens to the wrong kind of music, he will become the wrong kind of person." It is your choice to listen to the wrong music, as it is your choice to commit any immorality, but it is your free choices which define your character, and the nature of your character will either lead you to God, or away.
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