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Huh? If anything, the existence of God threatens the concept of free will. It's kinda hard to feel free if there's some omniscient, omnipotent dude who knows an

Huh? If anything, the existence of God threatens the concept of free will. It's kinda hard to feel free if there's some omniscient, omnipotent dude who knows and controls everything that will happen ahead of time...

gaika 18y ago
Definition of "free will" is the ability to act free of the will of god. What do you mean by "free will"?
- river_styx 18y ago
  Free will is the capacity of an individual to make his/her own choices and either to act or not act on those decisions. It really has nothing to do with God outside of theology and philosophy of religion.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - gaika 18y ago
    By this definition any control system will have a "free will".
    - river_styx 18y ago
      Yes, there are a lot of these kind of issues in and around the concept of free will, which is why there's a whole branch of philosophy dealing with it. But the point is that free will doesn't require God. You can believe in a perfectly deterministic, godless universe (or fluctuating quantum field universe) and also believe in a compatibalist form of free will. UPDATE: A brief summary of compatibalism: http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/V014SECT1 http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/V014SECT1
      - gaika 18y ago
        "human beings are sharply marked off from dogs by their capacity to act for reasons that they explicitly take to be moral reasons." According to them dogs do not have free will but people do. Probably talking about ethics and moral side of "free will" question, not physical or religious. But even there "free will" is just an illusion in your mind.
  - Herring 18y ago
    And how do you know if the individual is "really" free? As opposed to being controlled the environment or god or some unknown factor? Set up an experiment & you'll be far ahead of all the useless philosophizing.
    - river_styx 18y ago
      And how do you know if the individual is "really" free? This is a philosophical question, and as such, can't really be answered experimentally. At the risk of sounding sophistical and clintonian, it depends on what you mean by "'really' free". You can be controlled by environmental factors and still exercise free will by some definitions of that term.
ars 18y ago
Knows? Yes. Controls? Not so much. Able to control? Yes. But free will was specifically placed (by God) outside God's control because otherwise reward and punishment would be a joke. Just because God may know what you will do ahead of time, does not mean God caused you to do it.

gaika 18y ago

Definition of "free will" is the ability to act free of the will of god. What do you mean by "free will"?

river_styx 18y ago
Free will is the capacity of an individual to make his/her own choices and either to act or not act on those decisions. It really has nothing to do with God outside of theology and philosophy of religion.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- gaika 18y ago
  By this definition any control system will have a "free will".
  - river_styx 18y ago
    Yes, there are a lot of these kind of issues in and around the concept of free will, which is why there's a whole branch of philosophy dealing with it. But the point is that free will doesn't require God. You can believe in a perfectly deterministic, godless universe (or fluctuating quantum field universe) and also believe in a compatibalist form of free will. UPDATE: A brief summary of compatibalism: http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/V014SECT1 http://www.rep.routledge.com/article/V014SECT1
    - gaika 18y ago
      "human beings are sharply marked off from dogs by their capacity to act for reasons that they explicitly take to be moral reasons." According to them dogs do not have free will but people do. Probably talking about ethics and moral side of "free will" question, not physical or religious. But even there "free will" is just an illusion in your mind.
- Herring 18y ago
  And how do you know if the individual is "really" free? As opposed to being controlled the environment or god or some unknown factor? Set up an experiment & you'll be far ahead of all the useless philosophizing.
  - river_styx 18y ago
    And how do you know if the individual is "really" free? This is a philosophical question, and as such, can't really be answered experimentally. At the risk of sounding sophistical and clintonian, it depends on what you mean by "'really' free". You can be controlled by environmental factors and still exercise free will by some definitions of that term.

ars 18y ago

Knows? Yes. Controls? Not so much. Able to control? Yes. But free will was specifically placed (by God) outside God's control because otherwise reward and punishment would be a joke. Just because God may know what you will do ahead of time, does not mean God caused you to do it.