By the time I was 45 years old, I noticed after careful observation, certain events seemed to follow the laws of cause and effect. For instance, I had a cousin who turned out to be a drug addict. But I recall that he was sniffing glue and gasoline at the tender age of 10. I also was aware of the environment he was exposed to and feel that the environment contributed to his development and future perception and thus behavior. This knowledge, plus the awareness of the development of my children, and the children of friends and family, has since cause me to become interested in the freewill issue. And this Playlist is a collection of videos dealing with the matter.
Samuel Butler (1835--1902) wrote a Utopian satire titled, Erewhon. I have little doubt that the direction certain scientific finding and philosophical implications were leading were contrary to the perspective he had developed, because within the pages of Erewhon, Butler portrayed "criminals" being treated as if they were sick, and people with TB being incarcerated as criminals (for having TB). Of course, scientifically speaking (speaking from the perspective of methodological determinism), both TB and crime are the result of causal forces; and so called "moral responsibility" is quite irrelevant to the issue. Nevertheless, "criminals" should not be released without corrective therapy and monitoring of some sort, as TB patients shouldn't.
Also note, I've often heard that one should hate the "sin" but not the "sinner." The most recent findings of science totally agree with that old religious adage. One should hate the circumstances that created the "criminal" but not hate the "criminal." Still, seems humans are too afraid or too vengeful to abide by that old adage/commandment.
Unseen strings are the causal forces the individual is usually wholly ignorant of. Historically the masses have been manipulated by unseen strings. The shaman was probably first to discover and use such factors. Organized religion learned from and applied techniques used by the shaman. Then secular groups, such as The State and Big Business, seized the unseen strings in order to manipulate the masses themselves.
Magic tricks are not effective just because the hand is quicker than the eye, but also because the human is easily befuddled and beguiled.
The will is analogous to the wind. The wind doesn't literally exist as a independent thing. In fact, the wind is nothing more than moving air, which means the wind not only can never be free from the world of cause and effect, it can only exist as a result of causality (natural forces acting upon air). Thus it would be a contradiction of reality to say the wind is free. Now if we happen to label certain processes of the brain as the will, to say the will is free is a contradiction of reality.
The human brain is a very complex physical system that should be examined using the scientific method as is done when examining any other physical system. But what do shysters and idiots do? Immediately they try to insert hotly debated irrelevant issues into the discussion. I call it the befuddling bull shit strategy (BBS). It works in most cases but not against me. You see I've wised up to the BBS stratagem. Keep unnecessary complexity and disputed philosophical speculations out of discussions of physical systems, biological or otherwise.
Unseen strings are the causal forces the individual is usually wholly ignorant of. Historically the masses have been manipulated by unseen strings. The shaman was probably first to discover and use such factors. Organized religion learned from and...
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