Ill explain, science is based on the fact that its predictible. Like we know a ball falls to earth because of the gravity. The same is true for all matter, including our brain. So if our brain would be the thinking part of us, and our thinking does not come from something that is independent of that matter, (a soul) then we could predict out next thought based on the status of all molecules and interactions.
Yet we are concience of ourselves, knowing we can make choices. (ever said or have heart ppl telling other ppl that they should have done things differendly for example) Impling we have a free will to choose.
So how does that work for naturalists? (ppl believing we are only matter that evolved)
2006-07-15 21:25:25 · 11 answers · asked by Preacherman 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
they can't explain it, withou free will and a soul we are nothing more than animals using instinct and that is not the case. Our soul is the part that makes us different from the rest of the animal kingdom
2006-07-15 21:31:54 · answer #1 · answered by Dragonfly 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
(I do believe in a soul, btw, though not God) Technically we probably could predict our next thoughts if we were able to calculate everything that you say. There are millions or billions (I forget which) of brain cells, each with any of an almost infinite number of _possible_ neural networks between them - it's quite a job of calculations that you describe, but I guess that if we could calculate it, you would have your answer.
Even if you support free will, you have to realise that some things are automatic. Like Pavlov's dogs, we salivate when we see a good meal. We're not saying, 'Hmm... steak. I choose to salivate now.' We just do. That's a basic raction, but I imagine that much of thought is just the same thing at a million-fold level of complexity.
But that doesn't mean it isn't real. Love may well be a chemical reaction in the brain, but that doesn't make it a wonderful thing either. The thought that the brain might be more or less completely predictable doesn't make me feel bad in any way. After all, if that's the way it is, that's the way it is.
2006-07-15 21:37:57 · answer #2 · answered by XYZ 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Those who don't believe in a soul se free will as a psychological thing. It's something that happens in their minds.
You've got quite a bit of studying to do. The brain isn't the thinking part exactly. The brain is the computer that makes everything run. The brain is strictly biological, but thought deals with electric impulses more than the chemical compound of the brain. I like this analogy: thoughts are only stored in the brain just as data is stored on a hard drive.
2006-07-15 21:28:19 · answer #3 · answered by Luce's Darkness 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not a Naturalist but I'd like a stab at this. (I apologize to those of you who are if I am wrong)
I think that naturalists believe that free will is a set of behavioral impulses modified by experience coupled with genetics. The human brain is different for every person and the inherent tendencies for each individual takes form from what is inherited through the human genome. From there, our experiences in life shape and mold our reactive impulses that gear us toward "survival". Now our actions are guided by these sets of boundaries and guidelines that we instinctively / subconsciously act upon and term "free will"
2006-07-15 21:38:15 · answer #4 · answered by Dargonesti99 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A better question would be this:
If God, the all-knowing, already knows the future, already knows the outcome, then do any people who believe in Him (as He is represented in the Old and New Testaments) really have free will?
If He already knows what's going to happen to us (according to the Christian Bible) then our fate has already been determined. So, we really don't have free will, do we? If this is the case then having a soul has nothing to do with the free will we don't have to begin with.
The answer is not found in the many contradictions of the Bible. The answer is found in the individual heart and conscience.
2006-07-15 21:36:08 · answer #5 · answered by Doc Watson 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The answer is quite simple ... there is no such thing as true free will.
The mind creates the illusion of free will, but the mind works just as a machine ... an incredibly complex machine ... but a machine. Prediction of future thoughts may very well be possible.
You believe you are making external choices, but in reality your mind is simply acting upon current stimulus and its state (the product of each previous state).
2006-07-15 22:16:43 · answer #6 · answered by Arkangyle 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
James, technological know-how denies the life of ghosts because of the fact it purely accepts 3 states of be counted, sturdy, liquid and gasoline. all of us understand roughly easy, sound etc. that technological know-how won't be able to respond to. technological know-how is incapable of answering something with one hundred% actuality, it is very own definition.
2016-11-02 03:49:09 · answer #7 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
WTF, now ur just making up absolute balls , u cant prove u have a soul, but u can sure as hell prove u have free will, like my free will to take 2 points and tell u ur an idiot and ur not making any sense!
2006-07-15 21:33:37 · answer #8 · answered by bobatemydog 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Agnostics will answer this: I will just go with the flow. When they die (which they actually believe there is death), they will be nothing. I'm flabbergasted by what they said!
2006-07-15 21:31:51 · answer #9 · answered by Kurniawan A 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
we are self aware. like every creature on the planet. Is that a soul... who knows?
2006-07-15 21:29:14 · answer #10 · answered by melissa 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋