You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Interventionism and the Problem of Evil
Free will is necessary for the existence of free choices. We cannot freely choose the good without the freedom to choose evil. If we did not have the ability to freely choose, it would be meaningless to ascribe morality to them. I feel like I'm repeating myself. Did you read the third paragraph of my post? If so, what exactly doesn't make sense about it? Or do you not believe in the existence of free will?
I agree with you that in the field of thoughts, ideas, we should really be 100% free to think what we want because the simple thinking is unable to cause unnecessary suffering. But in the field of actions, many of these ideas can and should be restricted, without prejudice to any free thinking.
Are you referring to the restriction of human action in society? Because that's a different issue (though an important one) from metaphysical free will. I am asking whether you believe that mankind actually has the ability to choose his actions freely, not whether or not they should be able to. And as to your point below, about people who believe in the necessity of police (I am not one of them), and the apparent contradiction between a belief in free will and the belief in the necessity of restricting man's free choices, that is related, and I attempted to draw a correlation between the libertarian idea of free will and the Christian idea of free will. Apart from whether you believe free will exists at all, I'd also like to ask, are you a libertarian/anarchist?
I am a libertarian
Then, as a libertarian, do you believe that mankind has free will? Not that he should have free will, but that he actually does have free will? As in the ability to make choices, in action and in thought?
Our ability to make choices is limited to the circumstances, our brain state (children, crazy and drunk are not sober to make choices). And since time and space are no longer separate entities but are entangled in the space-time fabric, I seriously suspect that what we call free will is just an illusion. And research indicates that magnetic fields applied in your brain can interfere with your choices between raising the right or left arm, for example.
https://steemit.com/discussion/@discernente/babies-do-not-have-free-will
So you lean toward determinism, then? You believe that our actions are not the result of free choice, but rather the result of our biology, chemistry, and ultimately quantum fluctuations? If that's the case, then we can't pass moral judgement on the actions of any person, as he was simply acting according to his biology and had no choice in the matter. In fact, according to determinism, we cannot judge truth claims at all, as our brain states themselves are merely a product of material circumstance. Therefor, the words that you and I are writing, the discussion we are currently having, has no meaning whatsoever. This line of reasoning seems problematic to me, but if you believe this, then why would you be engaging in debate with me at all, much less about moral values in the world?