Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

   Post 87. June 16, 2019

  Paradox of FreeWill

   Freewill vs Fate, Fortune, Destiny, Determinism,    Predestination, Foreordination, Kismet & Karma

 In his response to the original indeterminate question, Mr. Turner chose to focus on the almost universal belief in Human Freedom-to-Choose from among a menu of unforced options, despite the empirical, logical & theological evidence against it. Modern Science is based on the assumption of an unbroken chain of Cause & Effect, since the Big Bang beginning of the world. Logicians have created supposedly airtight arguments against the possibility of libertarian freedom-of-choice. And some theologians, who take the Bible at its word, have con-cluded that divine omniscience means that the entire existence of the creation was foreknown in detail; hence allowing no opportunity for individual sinners to make the fateful choice between Good or Evil, God or Devil1. Thus, the incompatibility of Fate and Freedom has been debated for millennia. And the beat goes on . . . .

Nevertheless, in his reply to Turner’s slam-dunk on “I was born this way” destiny, Richard Unwin responded by noting that Einstein was proven wrong in his conviction that “God doesn’t play dice”. The very field of science, that the Genius of Gravity opened the door to, began to find more & more evidence that the real world, at its foundation, is a squishy swamp of squirm-ing things-that-are-not-yet-things2, and of events that are trig-gered by human choices3. After his death, physical determinists analyzed Albert’s brain, looking for some genetic advantage over ordinary humans. They found little out-of-the-ordinary, except a few extra folds ─ but no-one knows how those topo-logical furrows might make a difference in brain-power. Einstein himself attributed his prowess to immaterial imagination rather than material gray-matter.

Consequently, Unwin concluded that Quantum Theory indicates that “At the bottom of everything, the smallest particles that exist are ruled by chance. Nothing is predestined.” I happen to agree. But I added a slight twist from my own musings on fatalism4 :“Or, everything is probably predestined”. Like him, I found reasons for assuming free-agency in the paradoxical probabilistic underpinnings of our seemingly certain cosmos. It’s true that science can rely on the same effect following the same cause, to an accuracy of several decimal points of probability – but not always to the point of certainty. So, it seems that any self-determination or freedom-from-causation we humans possess must be found in that tiny statistical gap between cause & effect. You might call that an “odds of the gaps” argument.

Genius Turner's colorfully illustrated post cleverly describes the “awesome” and ironic paradox of the human faith in FreeWill, even as objective evidence seems to contradict that subjective feeling. Ironically, most of Christian doctrine is based on the notion that despite God's omniscience, he arranged for humans to have an unforced either/or choice in their salvation. Thus, they salvage their trust in God's justice. But some Grace theologians1, interpreting the same scriptures, argued the opposite : that the “elect” are predestined for heaven. Hence, the paradox that nothing they can do will disqualify them from salvation. Therefore, God is “just” only for those he favored in his foresight. Everyone else is out of luck — and Hell-bound.

Post 87 continued . . . click Next

1. Predestination :
  “Explanations of predestin-ation often seek to address the "paradox of free will”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination

2. Virtual Particles :
   Sub-sub-atomic particles are “briefly a part of our world”, before they disappear back into nothingness.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-virtual-particles-rea/

3. Quantum Mind :
  The Observer Effect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_mind

4. Karma, Fate, Freewill
   Are we morally responsible for our deeds?
http://bothandblog4.enformationism.info/page24.html

'Cause God makes no mistakes

I'm on the right track, baby I was born this way

___ Lady Gaga

If you see a
devil’s fork
take it
. . .
or not

Blog Forum
Freewill versus Predestination

My reply to Richard Unwin’s reply to Genius Turner on the Paradox of Freewill
http://enformationism.info/