Re: thinking about free will

[Doug Pensinger]

Dan wrote:

Well, that's kind of what I was trying to say - that it doesn't really
matter weather or not we really have free will until someone is able to
prove otherwise
What type of proof are you talking about?  Absolute, or proof,  given a 
few reasonable assumptions.
Proof would be the ability to predict what any given person will do in any 
given situation close to 100% of the time.  Good luck.

> If people want to believe only in those things that can be empirically
> verified, then that's certainly an option.  I'd just like the logical
> consequences of that to also be accepted.
Personally, I believe that there are a great number of things that can
not>> _yet_ be verified,
The things I am thinking of will only be subject to empirical 
verification if the present understanding of physics is as wrong as the 
caloric theory
of heat.  If it is as right as Newtonian mechanics, or even the aether,
then they can never be subject to empirical verification.


but that doesn't mean that I feel a need to fabricate an explanation for
them.
So, you believe that phenomenon is reality independent of our
observation...and that everything that cannot be reduced to this reality 
is fabricated?
No. I don't believe our observational capabilities are proficient enough 
to explain/predict everything. Yet.  I'm sure you are going to be 
flabbergasted about this and tell me that physicists are doing everything 
possible and that some measurements/predictions can not be made.  I'm 
saying you don't know
how to speak friend and enter. 8^)

In fact I consider it one of the factors that  give our existence 
purpose.
But, there is no empirical evidence for purpose of any kind.  So, why
fabricate it, since you said earlier that you don't need to.
I don't feel the need to fabricate an explanation for what I don't 
understand.  As a cognizant, intelligent being I can choose my own 
purpose(s).  One of the purposes I believe we have collectively chosen is 
to explain the universe that we live in.

--
Doug
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