Comments on: Is There Morality Without Free Will? http://www.iamanatheist.com/blog/2011/02/04/is-there-morality-without-free-will/ Discussions of religion and ethics from an atheist perspective Thu, 23 May 2013 10:44:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Anonymous http://www.iamanatheist.com/blog/2011/02/04/is-there-morality-without-free-will/comment-page-1/#comment-2397 Anonymous Wed, 09 Feb 2011 06:11:52 +0000 http://www.iamanatheist.com/blog/?p=1694#comment-2397 We all have a choice, we all have free will. So, choice = free will.
1. I have a choice to believe free will exists and you have the choice to think otherwise. Did you choose or did you not decide to write this post?
2. If we are all essentially machines, why wouldn’t we all be programmed the same? And what would give us, being machines, the ability to determine what is “bad” programming?
3. I chose to defend my stance on free will, I didn’t have to make this comment, but I did. Granted, because you posted, I made this comment, but I didn’t have to.
4. Perhaps we feel like there is free will because there is free will.

]]> By: NFQ http://www.iamanatheist.com/blog/2011/02/04/is-there-morality-without-free-will/comment-page-1/#comment-2387 NFQ Sat, 05 Feb 2011 18:38:17 +0000 http://www.iamanatheist.com/blog/?p=1694#comment-2387 The answer I usually go with is something like the last one. I don’t know how I would function if I didn’t think I had the ability to make choices. I would probably just sit around like a lump waiting for my body to deterministically do something. If everyone did that, it would be terrible. I don’t know, I’ve just never heard a compelling suggestion for how we ought to change our behavior and thoughts if in fact there’s no such thing as free will. (Actually, “change your behavior accordingly” becomes a pretty silly idea in the first place at that point.)

Even if we are completely deterministic creatures, part of that determinism is presumably based on inputs. If one learns the rule, “If I steal I will probably go to jail,” or “If I don’t get a job I won’t be able to eat,” etc. then one deterministically learns to do the “right” things (for whatever values of right you’re talking about). Having consequences for people’s actions doesn’t necessarily require free will, I think.

I don’t know … I always get mixed up and turned around when I try to talk about this stuff. Choosing language that makes sense is so hard!

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