Libertarian free will is the ability to have chosen differently in a situation.
Principle of credulity: Free will meets the principle of credulity-meaning that it seems intuitively true so one would need to provide good reasons to believe otherwise.
No Freewill: If naturalism is true then we wouldn’t have a soul and only what scientists can look at or discover can be real. Only nature exists. The soul would be the immaterial aspect of you that makes the free choices. So without it, you are purely physical matter and everything you say, do and think is caused and determined, everything about you, was destined to play out, just as your DNA has ordained. No freewill.
Better to believe it: In a paper by Vohs & Schooler (well replicated), 1 group read a text about the illusion of free will while the other read something else, after reading it they’re given a puzzle to solve where the prize is money. The experimenters made it slightly defective so cheating was possible and surprise surprise people who stopped believing in free will were far more likely to cheat. One of many compelling studies.
Atheist Dilemma: The informed atheist will understand the implication of their worldview (no freewill). Popular atheist neuroscientist Sam Harris understands this when he says all thoughts come from the unconscious and you have no control over them. This means something other than you causes your thoughts. You’re not having and forming opinions. You are experiencing them. Passive observer. Freewill can only be an illusion. This means the atheist should pretend and encourage others to pretend that freewill is true and real in order for better societal outcomes. This would be cognitive dissonance/voluntary delusion. And if we’re pretending things are true for the societal benefits, why not just become Christians too? Studies are very favorable on the link between intrinsic religiosity and good mental health!
Rationality and Objective Truth: If random physics and chemical processes determine everything then they determine exactly what and how someone thinks about something regardless of whether it’s true.
The Freethinking argument:
If humans do not possess libertarian freedom, then humans do not possess the ability to rationally infer and rationally affirm knowledge claims.
Humans do possess the ability to rationally infer and rationally affirm knowledge claims.
Therefore, humans possess libertarian freedom.
The Freethinking argument against Naturalism:
If naturalism is true, human nature does not include an immaterial soul.
If human nature does not include an immaterial soul, then humans do not possess libertarian free will.
If humans do not possess libertarian freedom, then humans do not possess the ability to rationally infer and affirm knowledge claims. (when you evaluate two views looking for the truth, whether you are objectively right or wrong, it wasn’t you getting it right or wrong it was forces of nature swaying you-chemicals and particles. How can we come to truth when everything we think and believe is programmed, set and predestined? This isn’t talking about epistemology, it’s saying we can’t affirm or claim to know truth, mostly because it isn’t us doing it, it’s something beyond our control. When you feel like you’re deliberating, contemplating and deciding, it’s not you. How can someone arguing against freewill actually think they are right? They can’t help believing what and how they do, so how do they know they are right? How do they get out of this self-refutation? Atheists don’t rationally think about things, ‘the ball rolls’ or the ‘dominos fall’, but on their worldview, it is anything but rational thinking.)
Humans do have the ability to affirm and infer knowledge claims. (we know this and to argue otherwise would be to affirm it. Any attempt to argue with this is “I have rationally affirmed that I cannot rationally affirm.” It’s also like saying “I cannot utter one word of the English language”). If atheists want to say free will is an illusion, then rational thinking and knowledge gained by reason are also illusions.
Therefore, humans possess libertarian freedom, human nature includes an immaterial soul, naturalism is false, the best explanation for all this is God.
Mad Scientist: If a mad scientist controlled everything you said, did or thought, how could you answer this: ‘How can you rationally affirm the current beliefs in your head as good, bad, better, the best, true or probably true?’ You cannot answer without begging the question or reasoning in a circle. Whatever you say in response isn’t you, it’s the scientist. This is why you can’t trust anything you say or do on materialism, its even worse on materialism because its not even an intelligence behind the operating board, its complete and utter meaningless randomness!
Our freedom is in choosing what we will focus on and think about. An environment can’t force a man to think or prevent him. But it can offer incentives and impediments.
Quantum Mechanics: Recent advancements in quantum mechanics support freewill. Princeton mathematicians John Conway and Simon Kochen demonstrated their freewill theorem. Which states we can only have freewill if we live in an idealist and indeterministic universe. So, the quantum level would need to behave indeterministically. There is no middle ground according to the men, if indeterministic, we are free. Quantum physics shows the quantum level behaves in an indeterministic manner. Anton Zellinger and others have demonstrated that “certain intuitive features of realism are abandoned.” A particle’s position is dependent on the observer, this means the actions of the observer can’t be determined by prior causes as determinism states.
Objections: People think God’s omniscience contradicts freewill. “If God knows what you’re going to do, then you’re not free.” But, if I had a time machine and was able to know exactly what you’ll do tomorrow, does that affect your free will to do it? No!
If the forces of nature cause you to hold a false belief, then it would be impossible for you to reach a better belief. Will you say you can’t reach a true belief? Then you’ve reached the true belief that you can’t reach true beliefs.
Physicist Tom Hartsfield “Freewill is preserved”
InspiringPhilosophy ‘The case For Freewill’, ‘How Free will works’, ‘Believing in Free will is Better’
Comments