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Determinism vs Free Will (1/2) - The Atheist Experience #616

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Uploaded by on Dec 7, 2009

What is The Atheist Experience?

The Atheist Experience is a weekly cable access television show in Austin, Texas geared at an atheist and non-atheist audience. The Atheist Experience is produced by the Atheist Community of Austin (ACA), a nonprofit educational corporation to develop and support the atheist community, to provide opportunities for socializing and friendship, to promote secular viewpoints, to encourage positive atheist culture, to defend the first amendment principle of state-church separation, to oppose discrimination against atheists and to work with other organizations in pursuit of common goals.

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THIS VIDEO IS A MIRROR OF http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu6iO3ci7qU

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  • It seems to me that even though I'm conciously making choices it would be impossible for me to make any other choice. It's still my choice but the events before that determined my choice.

    From my (probably uninformed) view the fact that the act of calculating all future events is impossible due to uncertainty principle ect. is not important. Just because it couldn't ever be done even by something supernatural dosen't mean that the theory is wrong.

    Feel free to correct me if I'm missing something

  • @Leios9 I think that as well, but the two main things to consider is that we a) don't know how consciousness comes about or what it even is, and b) that we have no choice but to operate as if we have genuinely free will, so the question serves no other purpose than to give us headaches and more stuff for science to be working on. :)

  • Free will is something everyone wants. Like heaven. The fact that it doesn't exist is too much for many people, even some atheists.

  • @hagenar It's hard to think about trying to make sense of things when making sense leads you to the conclusion that you can't make sense of things after all, because you do not even exist as an independent intellect. It's as hard to accept as it is to even grasp at all.

  • Meh, I feel like I have free-will. I think that's all that matters.

  • @YetAnthony i think so too. not every idea, regardless of how consequential it is, is also a useful one. although it is good to investigate and educate in order to understand things better and avoid misjudgement. :)

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  • @Justanothershell

    Agree I am saying its neither.

    Because actions of other people affect me and vica versa.

    The example I like to give in debates like this is food and drinks.

    It was not my lifes choice (free will) to eat and drink in order to stay alive it means it was "predestened" but at the same time I have a free will to eat any food that I like.

  • I don't think anyone, at this point in time anyway, can claim that either free will* or determinism is the only logical conclusion. We have a lot to learn about ourselves and the world around us. I will stay agnostic as regards to this argument. I strongly feel this question is a big unknown. Time and study my clear things up.

    *Depending on your definition.

  • @hagenar, Yep, even atheists idealizes. In others words, even atheists have illusions. Free will is, of course, one of them.

  • @WayOfTheMaster454 Don't know. That would strongly depend on their collective dispositions one nanosecond earlier.

  • @hagenar --Would a Jury buy that answer in a court of law?

  • @WayOfTheMaster454 molecules

  • @hagenar --If you do not have free-will, what exactly determines your determinism?

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