The Forum > Article Comments > Its coming: The most ground-breaking revolution in social history > Comments
Its coming: The most ground-breaking revolution in social history : Comments
By Brian Holden, published 4/11/2011The myth of free-will.
- Pages:
-
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Page 5
- 6
- 7
-
- All
Hasbeen, you write "A great deal of our lives & futures are controlled by forces that we have absolutely no control over." I think you mean 'luck', and that certainly is a critical part of the equation that Brian didn't talk about. But Brian was not saying that everything you did in your life was coded into that first cell. He was saying that the single cell that grew into you, contained all the information required to grow your brain and your body a certain way.
We all know that some kids are shy (weak-willed?) and others outgoing (strong-willed). This difference is explained by the fact that they started with different genes. Each child will make different choices and these choices they make are based on the way their brain is configured.
Neither the shy child nor the outgoing child is 'free' to make choices about what they will do because both children are being influenced by their brain but neither child is aware of what their brain is telling them to do.
Both children can be changed to some extent to be more like the other by providing them with an understanding of themselves and by teaching them to behave differently. That is what a good parent does and that is the way to develop a degree of free will.
But why do we insist that all of us should be outgoing, strong and competitive? Shouldn't we value the shy and gentle? Jesus did. And in our original state, when we first became human, we lived in small family groups, and a variety of people, both weak and strong, would have been needed for the group to be successful and survive.
LOL Hasbeen, you "met some navy types studding at the same uni." Those navy types do fancy themselves eh? My typos are always boring and stupid, not as funny as this one.