Beautiful question.
Here's how I've come to think of it:
If a mind were able to know all, what would it be like?
I say it would be the universe ITSELF.
To know everything in the universe as it exists is to be the entire universe.
If a mind were something separate from the universe there...
That's another favorite mental pastime of mine, trying to figure what makes the universe the way it is, and why the heck does it exist at all...
I'm part way into a couple books, one is string theory which is pretty fascinating... I'll have to say I'm further behind than the times on that...
Thanks, Boy@n
I checked out your links and read all of
"Immortality" by Swami Vivekananda
and really liked your raindrops analogy,
which was very similar in concept as Swami's 100 year old talk
only you said it more concisely and picturesquely...
It's pretty cool - to come up with a...
Here's something I just came up with on the "indeterministic universe" thread. It is relevant to this thread because without an interderministic universe, free will is impossible:
If the universe is completely deterministic, there could be no beginning of the universe, because, before the...
Hmmm... that prompted the firing of another neuron...
(Conjecture) If the universe is completely deterministic, there could be no beginning of the universe, because, before the universe existed, there was no matter, no energy, no space, no time. No time... Cause and effect is based on the...
I was just thinking that the other day... :smile:
It doesn't hurt to conjecture. We would never have heard of Einstein if he never conjectured.
Which they do, at the microcosmic level. The bigger the magnifying glass the more random the universe looks. I think that probably (conjecture)...
Royce's quotes:
You're mistaking the lack of one singular cause with no external cause. There are always multiple causes. My prompt was only one of many variables that came together to "cause" you to make a certain decision. My prompt was not a gun held to your head, it was a suggestion of a...
Reply to sneez:
I could have chosen to ignore your post but I chose to reply. I would not be typing these words at this moment if it weren't for your comments. You had influence over what action I took. The choice is mine, but who can say, if I chose to not reply, that that decision was or was...
Sorry, we do come prewired to an great extent, otherwise we might feel pleasure when we should feel pain or hear sounds instead of seeing color. I have a niece who had paternal twins 8 months ago. Their personalities are night and day, even with nearly identical nurturing by the parents. We have...
You apply a lot of extraneous examples and analogies that don't really have much to do with the central question of whether human beings (or other beings) have free will. In another thread (and I think maybe this one, I can't remember that far back in your above post for this thread!), you use...
I understand if you remove all variables a coin toss will always yield one side of the coin and not the other. But would you think the universe's basic building blocks would only "appear" to be probability driven, like a random number generator within a computer that is only "simulated" random...
LindaGarrette said:
Indeterministic does not imply that nothing can be predicted. It means that the at the micro scale the substance of the universe is chance driven. If you look at a casino's income over the long period (month or year) they make a fairly predictable profit. If you look at...
I like your example of the same exact universe with the same exact physical laws and same initial conditions, turning out a few billion years later (today) pretty much looking the same (stars, galaxies, etc) but different results in the details. Earth itself may never have come to be in this...
The whole universe is based on probability, if you believe quantum theory and string theory and the current scientific perception of the universe. So, proof beyond a shadow of doubt is impossible, but proof beyond reasonable doubt is possible. From all the evidence presented, I know most...
My original post on 5/11/05, contained the above statement, and I realize now it could be misinterpreted. I'm not suggesting that as one individual dies and new individuals are born, that there is any supernatural continuity in knowledge gained from one life to the next. The only continuity is...