A Request for Christians

[RubberWhistleHistle]

Torillian said:

RubberWhistleHistle said:

I don't understand why free will can't exist within the bounds of chemistry, physics, and science in general.  We may not understand how free will comes about from those things yet as the brain is an amazingly complex system, but there is certainly no requirement that if you don't believe in god the only alternative is fatism in which you have no free choice.  The difference between a religious person's idea of free will and mine is simply how they arise.  The religious person thinks that free will and higher thinking in general comes from the divine, where as I think it's a consequence of having a more highly adapted network of neurons in the brain.  

hmm.. i dont know. i still believe its a hard sell that you can have free will in a world view that says there is nothing outside our physical existance. 

there is also determinism as well which is the philosophy that i am pretty much saying is in line with this world view. anyway, as i mentioned in my original reply, i think that people would be able to construct a society and be able to determine what behaviors would be morally acceptable and what behaviors would be morally unacceptable, although these standards would be subject and relative to the society, so even then there is no absolute standard of right and wrong. in any case, i think what your proposing (high complexity in the brain) doesnt give way to free will, it gives way to contemplating the idea of right or wrong and constructing a society and therefore, constructing a moral code. again, i dont really think that means that people are completely free to follow it or not, but for the purposes of the betterment of everybody's living space, you can make people abide by it.