turquoiseb: > My guess is that at least 95% of the people > on the planet who believe that there is no > free will do so because of SOMETHING THEY > WERE TOLD. By the spiritual teacher, scrip- > tures, or religions they grew up with or > adopted later... > 99.9% of everything we know, we know because it's SOMETHING WE WERE TOLD. Almost everything you know is gained from the three valid means of knowledge: inference (observation), verbal testimony (guru, teacher), and the scriptures (books).
We do not know anything apriori, that is, we do not know anything about a spiritual path or 'enlightenment' unless we read about it, or we are told about it. So, your belief in a 'free will' you either read about or were told about. We cannot infer a free will from experience because there is nothing in the percieved world that would indicate a a will or free will - that's is a metaphysical idea. So, it is a surprise that Barry would now adopt an idealist point of view! Can anyone figure this out?
