A Question no one can answer?

by moman 16 Replies latest jw friends

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  moman

  A long, long, time ago, when, I waz in Dubland,I asked a question to a coulpe of fellow Dubs. The "question" got me a lot of strange looks & a little "shunning" to boot. It waz later spread around I waz boasting of having, "A question no one can answer"which of course, waz not true.

  My Question: If every decision one makes iz based on HEREDITY & ENVIRONMENT,things we originaly have no choice over, do we really have a choice or FREE WILL?

  It seems obvious that all decisions we make are based on what haz already happened,hence where iz the CHOICE? We can only draw from a reservoir that iz already there, building on the PAST, hence, we are the same az computers.

  I am well aware that this iz nothing new & iz a Fatalist view that others have encorporated in their beliefs, such az the Epicureans & others, but it just keeps coming back to me.

  Any thoughts?
• 

  logical

  I haz no thoughtz on ze matter. I am juzt imprezzed with all your z'z.
• 

  SixofNine

  zzzzz
• 

  Seeker

  My Question: If every decision one makes iz based on HEREDITY & ENVIRONMENT,things we originaly have no choice over, do we really have a choice or FREE WILL?

  Easy answer. Of course we have free will. We may have little choice over our childhood environment, but we do get to control our adult environment. So while heredity and childhood environment will push us in one direction, there is nothing stopping any of us from altering that course whenever we wish.

  All you have to do is look at those people who come from abusive backgrounds, but make a conscious effort to break that chain, to see that heredity and childhood environment are merely nudging us, not forcing us to act in one way and one way only. And thus we have free will. As simple as that.
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  moman

  logical, thanx for the BIG help,by the way,the "S" in ju(S)t doesn't have a ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ sound.
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  moman

  Seeker,look at it this way, your first decision waz based on (if you could remember) something that existed in you that you had no control over & every decision thereafter haz to be based on something already there, like a chain of dominoes.
• 

  Seeker

  You can break the chain any time you want. The alcoholic who gets help and quits drinking has defied his past and chosen anew.
• 

  Mindchild

  Hi Eddie,

  Some social scientists tend to believe that about 50% or more of our behavior is due to instinctual behavior, genetics, or biological factors and the remainder due to our enculturation.

  Even more interesting is that our sense of deterministic free will and self control is dellusional in nature. Psychological experiments often show us that our subconcious mind makes choices before our concious mind does, which later follows. We have a part of our brain that gives us a sense of conciousness but it is really just a story teller, in that it is like a waking dream. It more or less creates an illusion of streaming reality in which you and I function in and base our worldview from. In reality, it is only a tiny window into our inner self which is much more complex and often has conflicting memes, emotions, and experiences which disort our reality.

  So, really considering all this, is it any wonder that people walk around in a fog and are so easily manipulated? We really are animals underneath our human appearance. Regardless there are limits to which our cultures say you have individual responsibilty to overcome your biological nature. So, you can't blame everything on biology, you have to face up to the fact that you are more than your biology due to your shared experience in civilzation and you are expected to obey the rules or face societal consequences.

  Skipper--
  who thinks he wrote this post with free will but now he is not sure)
• 

  larc

  moman,

  You will get a blank stare from Witnesses because it is something they don't talk about. You see, their heads are full of these programs, much like a computer, and when a question can not fit a program of their's, their mind sends a "can not compute" statement. They are truely at a loss for words.

  Seeker,

  I don't think the answer is that simple. On a previous thread, I had a long discussion with Duns regarding free will versus determinism. I pointed out at the beginning of the discussion that I have mixed feelings on this issue. As a scientist, I believe in determinism. As a person, I feel like I have free will. If you use search and type in determinism, you can read this rather lengthy discussion.
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  logical

  Reservoir haz a "z" sound.