RolStoppable said:
I don't get all that talk about physics. I think it's a much better idea to look at it in a manner of instinct vs. consciousness. Instinct isn't anything more than reacting to any given situation without thinking about it. Consciousness is an actual decision-making process and an awareness of possible consequences. What differs humans from animals is said consciousness which is free will as it allows humans to choose their behavior. Animals act only on their instincts. By saying that free will is a myth, you are basically saying that humans and animals do not differ. That's why I have such a hard time buying into all the arguments that free will does not exist. Humans do have the choice to act against what their instinct tells them. In VXIII's example, the instinct is to eat the food. An animal would do it. But a human has the choice. In his example, the decision to not eat the food is tied to the awareness that always giving in to your instincts will make or keep you fat and thus is detrimental to your long term health. |
All this talk about physics is because our brain, like everything else in this universe, works through it. It's how the universe, and everything in it, works.
The thoughts in our brains are nothing more than electrical signals and chemicals reacting. The same goes for instincts, but the reactions are less complex but quicker.
Human's brains work in the same fundamental way as animals do. Telling ourselves anything else is just out of arrogance because we want to be special. Fact of the matter is, your brain is just a very complicated chemical reaction. Not some special supernatural thing that works differently than anything else in the universe. This isn't just an argument of instincts vs "decision making process". Yes, humans don't always act the way our instincts suggest we do. Sometimes, we have a longer thought process before we perform an action, and that longer thought process (read: complicated chemical reaction) sometimes gives us a different result than the quick instincts (fast chemical reaction). However that doesn't mean we decide the outcome of the longer thought process. It is still just a chemical reaction that we have no control over, and we don't decide the results conciously. It's just the result of the complicated chemical reaction, just like our instincts are the result of a quick chemical reaction.
Of course, there are those (quite a few of them actually) that believe in higher supernatural powers like a God or whatever. And that's the only way we could have free will: there being something supernatural that enables us to. I doubt it though.
