Free Will or Determinism has been seriously debated for the last few centuries. Human being has been trying to understand it from the two most influential systems, i.e. sciences and religions
Sciences
In newtonian mechanics, every object moves along a trajectory that is uniquely "determined' by the forces which act on it. It permits, in principle, the "accurate prediction of everything that will ever happen" on the basis of what can be known at one instant.
An example to this is the snooker game. The rigid network of cause and effect is deterministic.
Religions
Philosopher's argument on onmiscient and onmipotent deity against free will is they are self-contradictory.
- If god has a plan for the universe, which is implemented as part of his will, why does he not simply create a deterministic universe in which the goal of the plan is inevitable?
Moving towards a planned goal for the universe means determinism.
- If the universe is indeterministic (free will running), however, does that not mean that god's power is limited because of his inability to predict or decide what the outcome will be?
In order for onmiscient and onmipotent to hold true, the universe must be deterministic.
When one person says "I have free will to decide if I want to have tea or coffee for breakfast", he forget the fact that the so called free will hold true only if the larger system, the supply of the tea or coffee is always there. When the waiter says "I am sorry, we are running out of coffee, what about a good Earl Grey tea to complement your breakfast?". That leave us little choice I am afraid.
However, one can argue that he can go down town to buy the coffee in a shop and run back to the restaurant. The point here is our free will is inevitable bound by the constraint of the larger system.
Imagine the following cases:
- A gunner is pointing a gun to one's head. "Your live or your money? You have free will to decide, I give you 30 seconds"
- Polices block one of the road and tell the car drivers. "You all shouldn't proceed in using this road, you have free will to decide, however whoever cross this road will get a bullet".
We seem forced to the paradoxical conclusion that freedom of choice is actually a restriction that we suffer, namely, our inability to know the future........
Our inability of knowing what next give us an illusion that this universe is full of free will......
Philosophy Free Will or Determinism
Oct 16 2009, 09:40 AM
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