The materialist atheist philosophy has a problem: it cannot explain human free will, the existence of which has been a universal consensus among philosophers and individual human beings. So, they are bent on denying its existence. Is there an easier way to solve a problem that deny there is one? Thus they offer a number of theories to explain it away. I will cite a few:
- Free will is just an appearance. We are really the toy of our feelings (joy, sadness, fear, anger, disgust...). The Disney-Pixar film Inside Out could be an example of this philosophical stance.
- Free will is just an appearance. We are really the toy of the interaction of two basic impulses: the sexual instinct and the fear of death. This is more or less the position of Freud and his followers.
- Free will is just an appearance. We are really the toy of our neurons and the connections that bind them, which in turn have been developed during our training as adult human beings through education and social interaction. This is the position of Skinner and the behaviorists.
- Free will is just an appearance. We are really the toy of our genes. We are actually programmed machines and our software is our DNA. This is the position of the geneticists.
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| Grazing ostrich (Adamantios) |
- Although we are influenced by
many internal and external factors, in man there is a background of
freedom. We do not know how it works, but its existence is clear, we know it
from experience.
Recognizing
that we don’t know something is not a dishonor. On the contrary, it is a
challenge, the prerequisite for scientific research. To deny the existence of
problems is to apply the tactics of the ostrich (burying one’s head in the sand). Tactics which, incidentally, are
uniquely human; ostriches never do that.
Manuel Alfonseca
I like that you pointed out how those who propose a form of determinism all act as though they have freewill. That's something I like to point out: whether we actually have freewill or not, it appears that we do, and, therefore, we must act according to the construct we've been given. (Meaning we must make our own choices and act according to our will, not just wait for a higher power to act for us.)
ReplyDeleteExactly. By the way, you can sign with whatever name you want (it asks for a web address too, but it can be left blank).
DeleteWell said. I would add that those of us who see Free Will from the point of view of faith, not science, know that our individual free will is from God and His desire to create each of us in His own image and likeness.
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