Author Topic: Searching for GOD...  (Read 3874649 times)

Alan Burns

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38650 on: February 23, 2020, 07:40:24 PM »
In a sense you're actually right - but not, I think, in the way you mean. You keep on misrepresenting the argument against you as predetermined, whereas a mind that is deterministic would make decisions that are determined at the time, in response to the situation at hand.

The script of a play means that what the actors say is predetermined (decided in advance) whereas the moves made by a chess computer are determined by an algorithm at the time and in response to the situation. And no, it doesn't matter how the algorithm got there, that's totally beside the point (if you're tempted to go on about the human programmer, think about non-human animal behaviour instead).

If human minds are deterministic systems, then their choices are determined (not predetermined) at the time but that doesn't mean they could have been different in exactly the same situation, from exactly the same staring point.

I'm agnostic about how much consciousness is involved in human choice making but "conscious control" isn't logically incompatible with minds being deterministic systems.

We don't know any such thing, Alan. That is your claim - one you have totally failed to back up with any of your supposed "sound logic". As I explained in #38632, you seem to regard it as a premiss and it's one that those arguing against you do not accept - at least not unless there is a random element, which you deny.

It's therefore up to you to give us some actual reasoning to support your claim (and explain how such a difference could be anything other than random) - otherwise it's just your baseless assertion.

The problem appears to be that you've simply failed to do your homework before claiming to have "sound logic". Your background (as a programmer and your MENSA test) suggests that you have the aptitude to understand deductive logic but you seem to have failed to realise that you need to learn about it too.

It's like if you pass an aptitude test for programming - yes you have the ability but you can't use it until you've actually learned about the principles involved and mastered an actual programming language. You never seem to have taken that step with logical reasoning, which is why you can't construct even a valid argument, let alone a sound one and why you keep on falling into well known fallacies.
Being determined by any form of algorithm is still a case of being predetermined.  The algorithm itself will be predetermined at every event within the algorithm by physically controlled reactions to previous events.  You cannot escape the inevitable consequences of reactions which are predetermined by the laws of physics.  We live in a universe in which material entities must behave in accordance with the laws of physics unless there is some other determining factor.  In a material world, the concepts of nature, nurture, memory, experience … etc all boil down to be consequences of predetermined material reactions.  So an entirely material world can comprise nothing other that predetermined reactions to the past. No control, just reaction.  Such a world is not the world in which I live and interact with.
« Last Edit: February 23, 2020, 07:42:30 PM by Alan Burns »
The truth will set you free  - John 8:32
Truth is not an abstraction, but a person - Edith Stein
Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. - CS Lewis
Joy is the Gigantic Secret of Christians - GK Chesterton

Gordon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38651 on: February 23, 2020, 08:49:58 PM »
So an entirely material world can comprise nothing other that predetermined reactions to the past. No control, just reaction.  Such a world is not the world in which I live and interact with.

It is, Alan: you just don't like the idea because it renders your peculiar notion of 'God' null and void.

P.S. why do you so flagrantly misuse 'predetermined' when your mistake in doing so has been pointed out to you so often?
« Last Edit: February 23, 2020, 09:25:18 PM by Gordon »

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38652 on: February 23, 2020, 08:56:35 PM »
The reason for my choice is determined by my conscious will.  Not the past.  As I have previously said, I am aware of the past, but not determined by it.

And you can say it another hundred thousand times if you want, and it still won't make any logical sense. Alternatively, you could actually try to engage your brain and address the answers you've already been given.

Being determined by any form of algorithm is still a case of being predetermined.  The algorithm itself will be predetermined at every event within the algorithm by physically controlled reactions to previous events.  You cannot escape the inevitable consequences of reactions which are predetermined by the laws of physics.  We live in a universe in which material entities must behave in accordance with the laws of physics unless there is some other determining factor.  In a material world, the concepts of nature, nurture, memory, experience … etc all boil down to be consequences of predetermined material reactions.  So an entirely material world can comprise nothing other that predetermined reactions to the past. No control, just reaction.  Such a world is not the world in which I live and interact with.

Back to the dishonest redefinition of words, the pretence that this is all about the physical world, and the childish foot stamping.

Are you even bothering to read the posts you "reply" to?

Is there a functioning human mind in there, behind the idiotic repetition?

Are you ready yet to at least be honest enough to admit that you have no "sound logic"? If not, it really is about time you attempted to produce it...
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bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38653 on: February 23, 2020, 10:22:53 PM »
AB,

Quote
But I do demonstrate it by freely choosing to contradict your flawed logic - which denies the reality which I am currently demonstrating.

You do that a lot – just tell people that their logic is “flawed” but never bother to explain WHY you think it’s flawed. The logic that undoes you isn’t flawed at all though for the reasons I’ve explained to you many times. Your only way out of the determined vs random binary options is to invoke magic/”miracles”, which is no answer at all.

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My freedom is not just a sense of freedom at an experiential level.

How do you know that?

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If it were I would not have the freedom to consciously compose this post.

Non sequitur – another fallacy (not that you care). Why would the experience of apparent free will and free will as you wish to it to be feel any different?

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Any logical analysis must begin with the conscious freedom essential to contemplate and evaluate the issues under consideration.  To presume that this can all happen within subconscious brain activity without any means of conscious verification is highly illogical.

First you don’t have the first clue about how l rhetorical logic works, and second if you think something is illogical nonetheless then why on earth won’t you ever explain WHY you think it’s illogical rather than just assert it to be so?
 
Quote
And please explain precisely what generates the "deeper, logic- and evidence-based explanation for the experience of freedom" and how this source of generation can be presumed to be correct.

It’s “generated” (whatever that means) by the events that led to it, and there’s no need to presume anything when the sound reasoning and evidence justifies the belief.

Notwithstanding how fantastically obtuse and hard of understanding you are, try – really, really try – to grasp the simple principle that experiential free will and explanatory free will can be utterly at odds with each other, but still co-exist quite readily. I know you struggle with analogies, but is the concept still escapes you consider again an analogy I’ve tried before (and that predictably, you just ignored).

Most people are convince that, at an experiential level, they touch things. You touch the keys in front of you, a mother touches her baby, courts prosecute thieves for touching the goods they steal. Diana Ross sang a song called “Reach Out & Touch (Somebody’s Hand)”. An entire practical and social infrastructure works quite readily on the basis that people touch things.

What does science tell us though? Yes, science tells us that nothing ever actually touches anything because of the mutually repellent force involved.

Do you get it now? Sensory, immediate, “but that’s the way it feels” truths function quite readily alongside deeper logic- and evidence-based explanations that show the experiences to be hopeless for explanatory purposes, even though the false explanations the experiences give us have important and practical day-to-day uses.

Now we both know from the form you have here that rather than engage honestly with that basic paradigm you’ll try to divert with some utter irrelevance about “but you cannot compare God with touching a keyboard” as if the object of the belief had any relevance to the basic principle I’ve just set out for you. It hasn’t though, so don’t even bother with it. Instead, why not finally have a rush of honesty to the head and actually deal with the argument that’s been given to you rather than avoid it, misrepresent it as a straw man or just pretend nothing has been said by repeating exactly the same mistakes you make over and over again? 

What’s stopping you?
« Last Edit: February 23, 2020, 10:27:08 PM by bluehillside Retd. »
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God

Alan Burns

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38654 on: February 23, 2020, 10:52:52 PM »


P.S. why do you so flagrantly misuse 'predetermined' when your mistake in doing so has been pointed out to you so often?
It is not a mistake.
In a material world, everything must be entirely predetermined by past events.
The truth will set you free  - John 8:32
Truth is not an abstraction, but a person - Edith Stein
Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. - CS Lewis
Joy is the Gigantic Secret of Christians - GK Chesterton

torridon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38655 on: February 24, 2020, 06:25:54 AM »
The reason for my choice is determined by my conscious will.  Not the past.  As I have previously said, I am aware of the past, but not determined by it.

That's typical Burns evasion. I was not asking who or what was responsible for resolving the choice.  It comes to the same thing whether the decision maker is conscious will, a subconscious mind, a soul or an AGI synth or a Python program : if you/it could have resolved the moment of choice differently for no reason, that means the choice was in fact random.  Then, typically, you will then assert that our choices are not random, contradicting the claim that you could have chosen differently given identical circumstances.  There is your logical contradiction you have made for yourself, for you to work through.  Merely saying it was a conscious will does not resolve the contradiction; suggesting it must be supernatural does not resolve the contradiction, that is escapist; claiming it is something to do with 'physical things' does not resolve the logical contradiction. The contradiction means one thing only, that the claim is incorrect.
« Last Edit: February 24, 2020, 06:28:54 AM by torridon »

Gordon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38656 on: February 24, 2020, 07:30:35 AM »
It is not a mistake.
In a material world, everything must be entirely predetermined by past events.

You say 'predetermined', Alan, but I suspect this is you subverting determinism because you fear the consequences for your faith beliefs.

Your insistence on using 'predetermined' therefore reads like a pathetic attempt to pretend that your odd notions of 'souls' and making conscious choices are viable and yet you can't even bring yourself to address the obvious logical contradiction that you've created for yourself. I'm not convinced that a faith built on such specific instances of poor reasoning is worth persevering with, Alan, albeit I also think theism in general is bereft of sound reasoning.

Stranger

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38657 on: February 24, 2020, 08:16:00 AM »
It is not a mistake.
In a material world, everything must be entirely predetermined by past events.

Looks like a smokescreen, actually. Redefining words and then endlessly arguing about it, is one of the tactics you use (consciously or not) to avoid exposing your total lack of anything resembling a logical argument. You can say that "black" means white as much as you like but it doesn't change the colour of anything out in the world, it just makes it difficult for people to have a sensible and logical conversation with you - which, after all, seems to be the last thing you want.

Which brings us back your nonsense about the "material world". You keep on dishonesty claiming that the argument against you is based of the material world. Your need to keep doing this appears to be because of your second big logical blunder: thinking that the "problem" of determinism* could be solved by making minds have a "non-physical" component.

In fact, unless you are claiming omniscience, it's impossible to prove a phenomenon is not physical because we don't know everything that there is to know about the physical world (and even if we did, we couldn't know that we did). So, if we imagine for a moment that the stream of nonsensical gibberish you keep on regurgitating about "the present state of conscious awareness" actually made some logical sense (which it doesn't), then there would be no reason at all why it couldn't be due to some (as yet unknown) aspect of the physical world.

To summarise: if it's logically self-consistent, there is no way to show that it can't be physical and if it's logically inconsistent, it's impossible anyway. That's quite apart from the fact that the logical argument against your specific claims does not refer to the physical (no matter how often you bear false witness that it does).

And just to remind you, you still haven't done anything to correct your first big logical blunder: the premiss about choices not being deterministic* and involving no randomness. This is still not accepted and you still haven't made any attempt to logically justify it.


* I'm not going to stop using the correct terminology just because you're playing silly word games. The words deterministic and determinism have very specific meanings, see #32591 and #32601.
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Outrider

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38658 on: February 24, 2020, 09:41:31 AM »
I agree that a timeless state is difficult to comprehend.  But so is a conscious state.

No, it might be difficult to fully explain, but it's easy to comprehend, I'm doing it constantly when I'm awake.

Quote
Our conscious state gives us awareness of time, and awareness of information, but such awareness proves very elusive when trying to define it in material terms.

Material only exists in respect to time, we only perceive in respect to time, the act of perceiving implicitly requires time to exist.  More fundamentally, any concept of actual existence requires a timeframe for that existence to occur in, because there needs to be at least the prospect of non-existence for that existence to mean anything, and that requires two different loci within time - the concept of something existing (existence being an action) outside of some corollary of time is just nonsensical. It's not that it's difficult to conceive, it's that it makes no sense, it's up there with the three-sided square as a concept, it's oxymoronic.

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Alan Burns

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38659 on: February 24, 2020, 10:37:50 AM »
Quote from: Alan Burns
And please explain precisely what generates the "deeper, logic- and evidence-based explanation for the experience of freedom" and how this source of generation can be presumed to be correct.

It’s “generated” (whatever that means) by the events that led to it, and there’s no need to presume anything when the sound reasoning and evidence justifies the belief.

I think you missed the point I was making.  You concocted the phrase: "deeper, logic- and evidence-based explanation for the experience of freedom". But can you honestly believe that such a contrived well thought out phrase can actually be sourced from the deeper, logic- and evidence-based explanation for the experience of freedom you continue to purport?  That such a phrase somehow bubbles up from your subconscious before you become aware of it frankly beggars belief.  But if such a phrase can come into existence without conscious interaction, how can it be deemed to be valid?  Why should the sub conscious activity which generates it be considered to be capable of viability.

In essence your posts continue to show substantial evidence of your own subjective conscious freedom to think up reasons to support your chosen stance, and in doing so you aptly demonstrate the freedom which is more than just an experience - it s a reality which goes far beyond the capabilities of the subconsciously driven scenario you try to envisage.
The truth will set you free  - John 8:32
Truth is not an abstraction, but a person - Edith Stein
Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. - CS Lewis
Joy is the Gigantic Secret of Christians - GK Chesterton

Gordon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38660 on: February 24, 2020, 10:45:31 AM »
In essence, Alan, your position can be summarised as 'god is everything and everything is god' - can you see the problem?

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38661 on: February 24, 2020, 11:01:46 AM »
AB,

Quote
I think you missed the point I was making.

More likely falsified rather than missed, but let’s see shall we?

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You concocted the phrase: "deeper, logic- and evidence-based explanation for the experience of freedom".

“Concocted” – you do so love the fallacy of poisoning the well with pejorative language don’t you. Why is that?

Quote
But can you honestly believe that…

Ah, here comes the argument from personal incredulity again: “I can’t believe X, therefore X can’t be true”…

Quote
…such a contrived well thought out phrase can actually be sourced from the deeper, logic- and evidence-based explanation for the experience of freedom you continue to purport?

Yes.

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That such a phrase somehow bubbles up from your subconscious before you become aware of it frankly beggars belief.

Only your belief AB, only your belief…and, yet again your argument from personal incredulity here isn’t logically sound. Why is this so hard for you to grasp?

Quote
But if such a phrase can come into existence without conscious interaction, how…

And here comes the argumetum ad consequentiam fallacy again…

Quote
…can it be deemed to be valid?

It’s “valid” because that’s what happens.

Quote
Why should the sub conscious activity which generates it be considered to be capable of viability.

What are you even trying to ask here?

Quote
In essence your posts continue to show substantial evidence of your own subjective conscious freedom to think up reasons to support your chosen stance, and in doing so you aptly demonstrate the freedom which is more than just an experience - it s a reality which goes far beyond the capabilities of the subconsciously driven scenario you try to envisage.

And the argument by assertion to follow. Yet again, if the experience of apparent free will is in fact a deterministic phenomenon as the reasoning and evidence indicates it to be, how do you think it would feel any different?

Oh, and I see that once again you just ignored the analogy I gave you. Let me try to simplify it even more for you: “If science was right and no two objects ever actually touched each other, no court could ever convict a criminal of handling stolen goods. Therefore the science is wrong.”

Can you see anything wrong with that argument?

Anything at all?
« Last Edit: February 24, 2020, 11:11:54 AM by bluehillside Retd. »
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Alan Burns

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38662 on: February 24, 2020, 11:09:49 AM »
No, it might be difficult to fully explain, but it's easy to comprehend, I'm doing it constantly when I'm awake.
I know we can all experience conscious awareness, and our familiarity with it causes us to take it much for granted without consideration of what it actually is.
Quote
Material only exists in respect to time, we only perceive in respect to time, the act of perceiving implicitly requires time to exist.  More fundamentally, any concept of actual existence requires a timeframe for that existence to occur in, because there needs to be at least the prospect of non-existence for that existence to mean anything, and that requires two different loci within time - the concept of something existing (existence being an action) outside of some corollary of time is just nonsensical. It's not that it's difficult to conceive, it's that it makes no sense, it's up there with the three-sided square as a concept, it's oxymoronic.

O.
I agree that material exists in respect to time.  If conscious awareness is a material property, then it too will exist in respect to time.  But to date there is no definition for conscious awareness in terms of material properties.  Out conscious awareness can perceive material properties, but it does not necessarily comprise them.  Similarly our conscious awareness can perceive time as it acts upon material entities, but awareness of time does not necessarily mean being in that time itself.  The conscious entity of perception which is you may well exist in another timeless dimension.  When the material brain shuts down during sleep, the window into this time related material world will also close and our conscious awareness of time will cease during sleep.
 (I apologise for the brevity of this post - this subject really demands a much more detailed analysis)
The truth will set you free  - John 8:32
Truth is not an abstraction, but a person - Edith Stein
Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. - CS Lewis
Joy is the Gigantic Secret of Christians - GK Chesterton

Alan Burns

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38663 on: February 24, 2020, 11:17:47 AM »


Oh, and I see that once again you just ignored the analogy I gave you. Let me try to simplify it even more for you: “If science was right and no two objects ever actually touched each other, no court could ever convict a criminal of handling stolen goods. Therefore the science is wrong.”

Can you see anything wrong with that argument?

Anything at all?
The scientific definition of touch is totally irrelevant to the underlying cause.
What is being discussed here is the ultimate cause of your detailed arguments.  Is it all down to what can be achieved by endless chains of physical reactions, or is there something else involved?
The truth will set you free  - John 8:32
Truth is not an abstraction, but a person - Edith Stein
Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. - CS Lewis
Joy is the Gigantic Secret of Christians - GK Chesterton

Outrider

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38664 on: February 24, 2020, 11:36:30 AM »
I agree that material exists in respect to time.  If conscious awareness is a material property, then it too will exist in respect to time.  But to date there is no definition for conscious awareness in terms of material properties.

There is, though, ample evidence that consciousness at least manifests through physical properties - whilst there might be some notional non-physical component (or even source) for consciousness, it manifests through the physical structures of the brain.  We have no means by which anything not time-dependent could act upon the material - in order to act, there has to be a change of status, and that requires time.  We cannot have activity without some version of time, it makes no sense.

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Out conscious awareness can perceive material properties, but it does not necessarily comprise them.

How? How can perception - another activity - work without time?  How does a consciousness separate from time exert will when the sequence of activities is meaningless?  How is a decision based upon the limits of knowledge real when a timeless conscious has as much access to our future - and the results of the decision - as it does to our past and our understanding of the precursors?

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Similarly our conscious awareness can perceive time as it acts upon material entities, but awareness of time does not necessarily mean being in that time itself.

How?  How does something independent of time develop an awareness of time?  It's as meaningless as our understanding of timelessness, it's a cute notion that we cannot meaningfully parse, it's simply so devoid of the fundamental underpinnings of the reality that has shaped what we are.

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The conscious entity of perception which is you may well exist in another timeless dimension.

It's possible, though for the reasons I've explained above I think it's unlikely, there's just no conceivable way the two realms could interact.  Regardless of that, the possibility is itself not evidence that's actually the case.  It's equally possible that Tolkien was inspired by reality and that Gandalf and the other Maiar are maintaining our consciousnesses in jars in the Grey Lands to the East... but we have no evidence to support that notion either.  You've got conjecture, technically (arguably) viable possibilities, but nothing to give any reason to think that's a better explanation than the one we have a continuously growing body of evidence for.

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When the material brain shuts down during sleep, the window into this time related material world will also close and our conscious awareness of time will cease during sleep.

Our brain doesn't shut down, in its entirely.  Certain elements of it shift into different modes of operation - we still have some concept of time, and we still have some degree of conscious awareness, because we dream.  Our understanding of exactly what happens in this state, as I understand it, is even less developed than our understanding of where consciousness emerges from in the first place, though.

Quote
(I apologise for the brevity of this post - this subject really demands a much more detailed analysis)

Hey, we're all volunteers here, we take what's given (hopefully) with as much good grace as we can muster :)  No apologies are needed for not having enough time, I don't get on here at all most weekends...

O.
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bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38665 on: February 24, 2020, 11:45:56 AM »
AB,

Quote
The scientific definition of touch is totally irrelevant to the underlying cause.
What is being discussed here is the ultimate cause of your detailed arguments.  Is it all down to what can be achieved by endless chains of physical reactions, or is there something else involved?

Whoosh! So the analogy went about 32,000 feet over your head then. Hard to tell whether you simply can’t grasp even basic arguments or you’re being deliberately dishonest. The point though is simply this: there are truths at relatively superficial levels of abstraction that are wrong at the explanatory level but that are functionally useful nonetheless. We proceed on the basis that we have “actual” free will and that we actually touch stuff alike because those wrong explanations are helpful. That doesn’t mean though that both experiences can’t co-exist readily with deeper, more logically robust and evidence based explanations for them.

And what that should tell you is that one of the various fallacies on which you rely (the argumentum ad consequentiam – “if free will was deterministic the courts couldn’t prosecute people for their bad decisions, therefore free will can’t be deterministic”) is stupid.

Is any of this sinking in yet?

Anything at all?
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Stranger

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38666 on: February 24, 2020, 11:46:38 AM »
I think you missed the point I was making.  You concocted the phrase: "deeper, logic- and evidence-based explanation for the experience of freedom". But can you honestly believe that such a contrived well thought out phrase can actually be sourced from the deeper, logic- and evidence-based explanation for the experience of freedom you continue to purport?  That such a phrase somehow bubbles up from your subconscious before you become aware of it frankly beggars belief.  But if such a phrase can come into existence without conscious interaction, how can it be deemed to be valid?  Why should the sub conscious activity which generates it be considered to be capable of viability.

Incredulity and once again confusing the conscious versus subconscious with the logical impossibility of choices not being deterministic* and not involving randomness.

In essence your posts continue to show substantial evidence of your own subjective conscious freedom to think up reasons to support your chosen stance, and in doing so you aptly demonstrate the freedom which is more than just an experience - it s a reality which goes far beyond the capabilities of the subconsciously driven scenario you try to envisage.

Baseless assertion and childish foot stamping.

I know we can all experience conscious awareness, and our familiarity with it causes us to take it much for granted without consideration of what it actually is.

Says the guy refusing to actually think about it logically.

I agree that material exists in respect to time.  If conscious awareness is a material property, then it too will exist in respect to time.  But to date there is no definition for conscious awareness in terms of material properties.  Out conscious awareness can perceive material properties, but it does not necessarily comprise them.  Similarly our conscious awareness can perceive time as it acts upon material entities, but awareness of time does not necessarily mean being in that time itself.  The conscious entity of perception which is you may well exist in another timeless dimension.  When the material brain shuts down during sleep, the window into this time related material world will also close and our conscious awareness of time will cease during sleep.

Argument from ignorance, baseless assertion, and hand-waving gibberish.

Is it all down to what can be achieved by endless chains of physical reactions, or is there something else involved?

Once again, the blatant dishonest misrepresentation of the logic as being to do with the physical - and unless you're claiming to be omniscient, you cannot possibly know what can be achieved in the physical world. If there's a logically self-consistent way of escaping "chains of physical reactions", then it too could be physical. If there isn't, it's impossible anyway.

I pointed out (not for the first time) two major logical blunders in #38657 - are you just going to ignore them?
  • People do not accept your premiss about choices not being deterministic* and not involving randomness. Without that, you have nothing at all. Are you even going to try to attempt to justify it?

  • You cannot get rid of a logical problem by pretending it's to do with the physical world. You need to address the logical contradiction that torridon explained to you (yet again) in #38655.
Where is your sound logic, Alan?


* I'm not going to stop using the correct terminology just because you're playing silly word games. The words deterministic and determinism have very specific meanings, see #32591 and #32601.
x(∅ ∈ x ∧ ∀y(yxy ∪ {y} ∈ x))

Sebastian Toe

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38667 on: February 24, 2020, 11:58:08 AM »


How? How can perception - another activity - work without time?  How does a consciousness separate from time exert will when the sequence of activities is meaningless?  How is a decision based upon the limits of knowledge real when a timeless conscious has as much access to our future - and the results of the decision - as it does to our past and our understanding of the precursors?


I agree.
Something which exists in a realm without time must have access to everything all at once. All that we have been, are, and ever will be!
Therefore this "soul" already knows what decisions we have/will make (in our time constrained existence)
In other words, our future, from it's reality  has already happened.
What's a word for that?
Oh yes, predetermined!
"The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends.'
Albert Einstein

Alan Burns

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38668 on: February 24, 2020, 03:05:48 PM »


And what that should tell you is that one of the various fallacies on which you rely (the argumentum ad consequentiam – “if free will was deterministic the courts couldn’t prosecute people for their bad decisions, therefore free will can’t be deterministic”) is stupid.

Our freedom to choose is determined by our conscious will (as opposed to past events 0ver which we have no control) - hence the justification for prosecuting.
The truth will set you free  - John 8:32
Truth is not an abstraction, but a person - Edith Stein
Free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. - CS Lewis
Joy is the Gigantic Secret of Christians - GK Chesterton

Stranger

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38669 on: February 24, 2020, 03:11:45 PM »
Our freedom to choose is determined by our conscious will (as opposed to past events 0ver which we have no control) - hence the justification for prosecuting.

So much nonsense in so few words. Baseless assertion, false dilemma, and an implied appeal to consequences and/or false authority.

Where is your sound logic, Alan?
x(∅ ∈ x ∧ ∀y(yxy ∪ {y} ∈ x))

bluehillside Retd.

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38670 on: February 24, 2020, 03:44:35 PM »
AB,

Quote
Our freedom to choose is determined by our conscious will (as opposed to past events 0ver which we have no control) - hence the justification for prosecuting.

You have a remarkable facility for packing a lot of mistakes into relatively few words. Leaving aside the unqualified assertion pretending to be an argument, if you seriously think there are invisible little creatures called “souls” at the controls functioning outside all logical constraints, why would you say that courts prosecute people rather than these souls? After all, isn’t it the “souls” using their magical powers that decide to rob the sweet shop?

Oh, and I see that yet again you’ve just ignored being schooled on what “analogy” means and carried on as if nothing had happened.

What does this behaviour say about you do you think?
"Don't make me come down there."

God

Gordon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38671 on: February 24, 2020, 03:57:00 PM »
Our freedom to choose is determined by our conscious will (as opposed to past events 0ver which we have no control) - hence the justification for prosecuting.

Campbell's do condensed soups, Alan does condensed fallacies.

Roses

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38672 on: February 24, 2020, 04:03:25 PM »
I wonder why AB continues to post on this thread as it must be obvious even to him very few, if any, see it his way? The more he posts the less convincing he is, therefore it is less and less likely anyone will convert to his way of thinking.
"At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them."

torridon

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38673 on: February 24, 2020, 04:20:46 PM »
Our freedom to choose is determined by our conscious will (as opposed to past events 0ver which we have no control) - hence the justification for prosecuting.

But of course our conscious will itself derives from something prior.  Were that not the case, then our will would be random. I see a nice recipe for spaghetti with chorizo, before you know it, I build a desire to eat it.  Our minds are continually resolving between rival desires, and this plays out incessantly through both conscious and subconscious levels of mind.

Walter

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Re: Searching for GOD...
« Reply #38674 on: February 24, 2020, 04:44:06 PM »
AB's responses are computer generated relgio bollocks

that is -  CGRB  8)