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I think on Buddhism we need an actual Buddhist to clarify.

So, Atheists, what is your opinion on the Theory of Unification?

So, Atheists, what is your opinion on the Theory of Unification?

So, Atheists, do you believe in God?

The thread is "Ask An Atheist"

Theory of Unification?

I don't recall an "Ask a Theoretical Physicist" thread, but I imagine it would spin the mods right out if someone started one.

I see what he means about us not having free will but I don't exactly agree with it. Free will is being able to choose what you do. So if you make an action then that is free will right? Maybe I'm not understanding it all that well. But that's what free will seems like to me. The act of lighting a pipe connects to freedom because you don't have to. Your arm doesn't involentarily light the pipe. You have to choose to. Even at gunpoint, you choose to light it or not.

But many people believe that this problem of regress is a false one. For them, freedom of will is synonymous with the idea that, with respect to any specific thought or action, one could have thought or acted differently. But to say that I could have done otherwise is merely to think the thought, âI could have done otherwiseâ after doing whatever I, in fact, did. Rather than indicate my freedom, this thought is just an epitaph erected to moments past. What I will do next, and why, remains, at bottom, inscrutable to me. To declare my âfreedomâ is tantamount to saying, âI donât know why I did it, but itâs the sort of thing I tend to do, and I donât mind doing it.â

The physiologist Benjamin Libet famously demonstrated that activity in the brainâs motor regions can be detected some 300 milliseconds before a person feels that he has decided to move. Another lab recently used fMRI data to show that some âconsciousâ decisions can be predicted up to 10 seconds before they enter awareness (long before the preparatory motor activity detected by Libet). Clearly, findings of this kind are difficult to reconcile with the sense that one is the conscious source of oneâs actions.

I think I understand that after the action is performed then you were going to pick that action no matter what. But how does it prove that we didn't have free will before the action? I also don't understand the brain one. Your actions are performed by your brain and your conciousness is also provided by your brain. So why should the brain have decided the action beforehand. The brain is what makes the human, so shouldn't the brain make the action before the body performs it? I feel like I might be severly misunderstanding this.

To counter this though...you're going to use past experiences/personal morals to decide most things, which means, you have previously decided what you feel is important. I know that if someone walked up to me and asked for money I would not give them any. Does this mean I do not have free will? I don't think so. I decide not to based on previous experience of giving people things, and on the general assumption that they may very well be lying to me.

Even if the brain decides before you make an action, that doesn't mean that you didn't make that choice. Especially choices that are made over a long period of time and not just a split second.

I think I understand that after the action is performed then you were going to pick that action no matter what. But how does it prove that we didn't have free will before the action?

Our belief in free will seems to arise from our moment-to-moment ignorance of the specific prior causes of our thoughts and actions. The phrase âfree willâ describes what it feels like to be identified with the content of each mental state as it arises in consciousness. Trains of thought like, âWhat should I get my daughter for her birthday? I know, Iâll take her to a pet store and have her pick out some tropical fish,â convey the apparent reality of choices, freely made. But from a deeper perspective (speaking both subjectively and objectively), thoughts simply arise (what else could they do?) unauthored, and yet author to our actions.

I also don't understand the brain one. Your actions are performed by your brain and your conciousness is also provided by your brain. So why should the brain have decided the action beforehand. The brain is what makes the human, so shouldn't the brain make the action before the body performs it? I feel like I might be severly misunderstanding this.

I see what you're trying to say. It's that our brain biologicly knows what it will do and we just consiously obsreve it through another part of our brain, right? THat's a definite possibility. But I choose to belive that based from our own experiences that our brain decides something, so it's technically your choice whether you were aware of it or not. It seems more likly to me as different people make different disicions often it seems based on their experoences like kasic said.

First of all, I really recommend everbody to read the two articles. They might not change your views on free will but they are still interesting (and might answer some of your questions).

To counter this though...you're going to use past experiences/personal morals to decide most things, which means, you have previously decided what you feel is important. I know that if someone walked up to me and asked for money I would not give them any. Does this mean I do not have free will? I don't think so. I decide not to based on previous experience of giving people things, and on the general assumption that they may very well be lying to me.

Yes, choices, efforts, intentions, reasoning, and other mental processes influence our behaviorâ"but they are themselves part of a stream of causes which precede conscious awareness and over which we exert no ultimate control. My choices matter, but I cannot choose what I choose. And if it ever appears that I doâ"for instance, when going back and forth between two optionsâ"I do not choose to choose what I choose. Thereâs a regress here that always ends in darkness. Subjectively, I must take a first step, or a last one, for reasons that are inscrutable to me.

Man can do what he will but he cannot will what he wills

Even if the brain decides before you make an action, that doesn't mean that you didn't make that choice.

(...) To say that âmy brainâ has decided to think or act in a particular way, whether consciously or not, and my freedom consists in this, is to ignore the very reason why people believe in free will in the first place: the feeling of conscious agency. People feel that they are the authors of their thoughts and actions, and this is the only reason why there seems to be a problem of free will worth talking about.

I see what you're trying to say. It's that our brain biologicly knows what it will do and we just consiously obsreve it through another part of our brain, right? THat's a definite possibility. But I choose to belive that based from our own experiences that our brain decides something, so it's technically your choice whether you were aware of it or not. It seems more likly to me as different people make different disicions often it seems based on their experoences like kasic said.

Read the last quote from my answer to Kasic.

*Shrug*

Really, to me, this seems just like philosophy. You can discuss what may or may not be, for reasons known or unknown, and never get an answer. I personally believe that philosophy is just what happens when educated people get bored/have nothing better to do.

Does it really matter whether or not we have free will anyways? In the end nothing has changed because it has been the way it is now all along. Sort of like calling an orange an orange. I could call it a grape and be talking about the same thing, it wouldn't change what it is.

Right, but you are your brain right? It makes your personality, emotions, perception of the world, ect... So if your brain makes a decison then it's you making that descision. If you are sleep walking even though your not consious you are still the one making decisions. You may not relize it but you are. My sister used to sleep walk to my mothers room and ask to sleep with her because she was scared. I used to sleep walk into my living room and pray in the middle of the night. Your brains actions are always based off of your feelings personality and thoughts. If your body does something then it was because you wanted it to. Unless of course you have some type of disorder that changes that, like involuntary spasms. So whether you're concious or not you always do whatever you want.

Each of us has many organs in addition to a brain that make unconscious âdecisionsââ"but these are not events for which anyone feels responsible. Are you producing red blood cells and digestive enzymes at this moment? Your body is, of course, but if it âdecidedâ to do otherwise, you would be the victim of these changes, rather than their autonomous cause. To say that I am âresponsibleâ for everything that goes on inside my skin because itâs all âme,â is to make a claim that bears no relationship to the feelings of agency and moral responsibility that make the idea of free will an enduring problem for philosophy.

Really, to me, this seems just like philosophy. You can discuss what may or may not be, for reasons known or unknown, and never get an answer. I personally believe that philosophy is just what happens when educated people get bored/have nothing better to do.

Does it really matter whether or not we have free will anyways?

I personally believe that philosophy is just what happens when educated people get bored/have nothing better to do.

So if your brain makes a decison then it's you making that descision.

If you are sleep walking even though your not consious you are still the one making decisions.

If your body does something then it was because you wanted it to.

THat's a definite possibility.

so it's technically your choice whether you were aware of it or not.

To counter this though...you're going to use past experiences/personal morals to decide most things, which means, you have previously decided what you feel is important.