Searching for GOD...

[Nearly Sane]

You have free will events both as physical and not physical in your position, where is the mind if it isn't physical?

[Alan Burns]

You have free will events both as physical and not physical in your position, where is the mind if it isn't physical?

The free will event is physical.  The cause eminates from the human soul, which is not physical.

[Shaker]

Is there any evidence for that, or is it yet another bald assertion, Alan?

[Nearly Sane]

You have free will events both as physical and not physical in your position, where is the mind if it isn't physical?

The free will event is physical.  The cause eminates from the human soul, which is not physical.

  So where does this cause, which seems, in the way you are referring to it, to not be an event, happen?

[Alan Burns]

I'm not even sure that free will feels particularly free, in any case.   What does 'feeling free' mean?   When I'm driving, I change gear, brake, steer, and so on, with hardly a moment's thought.   

Of course, I know that there are other choices, for example, I could drive the car into a wall instead, but is that what feeling free is like?  It sounds rather like a post hoc rationalization, well it was free, because I could have done something else. 

And there is still the problem of what is free.   I mean what is it that chooses?

In your example, you might make a conscious decision to overtake the car in front.  You may not need to overtake it, but you have the free will to do it if you want (when it is safe to do so hopefully).  The decision will not be automatic, and certainly not random.  It will be initiated by your power of free will.

[Alan Burns]

You have free will events both as physical and not physical in your position, where is the mind if it isn't physical?

The free will event is physical.  The cause eminates from the human soul, which is not physical.

  So where does this cause, which seems, in the way you are referring to it, to not be an event, happen?

I do not know where in our physical world the cause eminates from, but I would postulate that it takes effect as a quantum event within an atom (or atoms) inside a brain cell.

[Nearly Sane]

You have free will events both as physical and not physical in your position, where is the mind if it isn't physical?

The free will event is physical.  The cause eminates from the human soul, which is not physical.

  So where does this cause, which seems, in the way you are referring to it, to not be an event, happen?

I do not know where in our physical world the cause eminates from, but I would postulate that it takes effect as a quantum event within an atom (or atoms) inside a brain cell.

Isn't this more like the what you are referring to as the 'free will event' rather than the cause?  Oh and I presume you mean emanates?

[Leonard James]

They need a little bit of trouble - just a bit - in order to learn.

Of course, but they will get plenty of trouble in life without causing it by doing wrong.

Otherwise they'll either be automatons or dangerous.

Why on earth should they?

[torridon]

The free will event is physical.  The cause eminates from the human soul, which is not physical.

  So where does this cause, which seems, in the way you are referring to it, to not be an event, happen?

I do not know where in our physical world the cause eminates from, but I would postulate that it takes effect as a quantum event within an atom (or atoms) inside a brain cell.

I'm quite partial to a bit of postulation myself from time to time. Your postulation here though looks suspiciously like a God of the Gaps derivative.

How did you get on with your 'want to be gay' challenge btw ?

[Shaker]

How did you get on with your 'want to be gay' challenge btw ?

Not my discussion on my thread, but exsqueeze me? Baking powder?

[torridon]

Just tryin' to help poor Alan out with a little thought experiment old fruit 

[Shaker]

Well yes, yes old bean, but that sounds too specific to be a random plucked-out-of-the-air thingywhatsit and sounds like something which has had previous mileage. So ... ?

[Rhiannon]

They need a little bit of trouble - just a bit - in order to learn.

Of course, but they will get plenty of trouble in life without causing it by doing wrong.

Otherwise they'll either be automatons or dangerous.

Why on earth should they?

My eldest had a horrid friend at primary school. She told her to eat leaves picked from the garden for a laugh. Turned out to be cow parsley but could have been hemlock. Scared the whatsits out of my girl and just maybe when her friends tell her to do something stupid now she's a teenager she will be strong enough to say no.

Children learn by making mistakes and correcting themselves or being corrected. Very often 'doing wrong' does not mean intending to cause harm but if children don't learn for themselves that actions have consequences then they will never be able to live independently as adults.

[torridon]

Well yes, yes old bean, but that sounds too specific to be a random plucked-out-of-the-air thingywhatsit and sounds like something which has had previous mileage. So ... ?

Nah, no previous yer honour.

Our Alan is a good sort really.  Totally bonkers, sure, but a good egg at the end of the day.

[Shaker]

I'll believe you. Thousands etc. etc. 

[Rhiannon]

# 1324 ( ) Shaker, I actually feel the same about cooler weather. I had a blissful time walking in that lovely soft rain that I swear only falls on the British Isles last week. I dread heatwaves, am pleased to dance in a summer shower.

The only reason that I am less in love with autumn than I once was is that I now have an eight mile drive to and from school mostly down country lanes and on a foggy November evening with a touch of frost on the roads that isn't fun.

[torridon]

I find different beauties in all seasons, and it is the change of season that I like. Now we are in a warm dry spell I am lusting after your foggy November days.

[Rhiannon]

Best thing about this time of year is to step outside at night to find it's cool and slightly damp, and the air is filled with the scent of honeysuckle. Utterly perfect.

[Shaker]

Best thing about this time of year is to step outside at night to find it's cool and slightly damp, and the air is filled with the scent of honeysuckle. Utterly perfect.

When I take the dog out last thing at night, there's a house about 150 yards away at most which has a honeysuckle/woodbine so profuse that it spills and froths over the garden fence onto or over the footpath. You - I; we; can't speak for Tilly but I know that I - can smell it from yards away; you can smell it coming and can smell it going. That honeysuckle/woodbine scent that once smelt is never forgotten.

The good thing for me is that since I take Tilly out very late - past nightfall even at this time of year - when I go by I can step onto the grass verge and shove my grizzled chops into the mass of flowers and have a lungful presumably without being seen. I have a lot of bad days but that's a good end even to a shit day 

[jjohnjil]

It's because we slow down in bad weather. Rather than think we have to do stuff we just stop.

I have similarly clear memories of lying in grass on warm days.

You're probably right, Rhiannon, nostalgia more than anything.  I just don't know why of all my memories of the kids, that one always gives me a warm feeling!  Odd, humans beings, aren't we!

[Rhiannon]

Best thing about this time of year is to step outside at night to find it's cool and slightly damp, and the air is filled with the scent of honeysuckle. Utterly perfect.

When I take the dog out last thing at night, there's a house about 150 yards away at most which has a honeysuckle/woodbine so profuse that it spills and froths over the garden fence onto or over the footpath. You - I; we; can't speak for Tilly but I know that I - can smell it from yards away; that honeysuckle/woodbine scent that once smelt is never forgotten.

The good thing for me is that since I take Tilly out very late - past nightfall even at this time of year - when I go by I can step onto the grass verge and shove my grizzled chops into the mass of flowers and have a lungful presumably without being seen. I have a lot of bad days but that's a good end even to a shit day 

Im sorry to hear about the bad days, my days are wading through treacle combined with utter uncertainty at the moment but the honeysuckle is in bloom and the elder and the pinks, and I wade a bit more.

[Shaker]

We are funny old arrangements of stuff, all right, and that's what make this thing interesting 

[Rhiannon]

It's because we slow down in bad weather. Rather than think we have to do stuff we just stop.

I have similarly clear memories of lying in grass on warm days.

You're probably right, Rhiannon, nostalgia more than anything.  I just don't know why of all my memories of the kids, that one always gives me a warm feeling!  Odd, humans beings, aren't we!

Why not? And like many seaside towns, Southend is an easy place to feel nostalgic about. 

[Shaker]

Im sorry to hear about the bad days, my days are wading through treacle combined with utter uncertainty

Meh. It's all treacle and utter uncertainty. Get me and wigginhall to strap you into a chair in a dark room with an anglepoise lamp in your chops and beat you smartly about the back of the head with Alan Watts's This Is It while he does the Zen whatsit of sunyata and the emptiness of all being and various assorted koans while I do the Western philosophical tradition of bastinado of the soles of your feet with Russell's Problems of Philosophy whilst expounding upon Kant's tripartite model of opinion, belief and justified knowledge and see how you like them apples.

If he ever reads this, Wiggy will know. And, probably, laugh 

[BashfulAnthony]

It's because we slow down in bad weather. Rather than think we have to do stuff we just stop.

I have similarly clear memories of lying in grass on warm days.

You're probably right, Rhiannon, nostalgia more than anything.  I just don't know why of all my memories of the kids, that one always gives me a warm feeling!  Odd, humans beings, aren't we!

Why not? And like many seaside towns, Southend is an easy place to feel nostalgic about. 

We are all nostalgic about our home town. Mostly anyway.  Some time ago there was a light-hearted local radio piece which was asking for a slogan for your home city (Nottingham, in my case.)   I had a go, and my entry was: Nottingham: easy to get out of."  I didn't win.