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Get StartedLooks like people haven't been praying enough.
Time to pray harder.
I know my view is different, but I'm just as baffled as to why there are people that don't think God lets bad things happen to good people. Some take that belief so far as to not believe in free will. I just don't get it. It's weird how being extremely atheist or extremely theist can lead a person to doubt free will.
whoa there, hoss.
now how exactly do you figure an "extreme" atheist would doubt free will by virtue of his position on atheism? and what exactly is an extreme atheist?
Fair question. I'm really talking about physical determinism when I say extreme atheist. People that hold a hard line on the idea that all that exists is what exists in the physical world. To me, they seem to be the most extreme atheists with the most strongly held existential beliefs.
I hold such an opinion, but I believe we more or less have "free will" though we should probably clarify what exactly we mean by "free will"
A good definition of free will is important.
I've read atheist descriptions of how free will can be compatible with a deterministic world, but those descriptions fall into two categories, descriptions I just don't understand or description that I deem to avoid the issue through semantics.
To me, free will means that when I decide to wiggle my finger, my decision is a causal driver to the action and not solely a reaction to the deterministic behavior of my physical brain where the perception of choice is just an emergent behavior. My choices originate with me, my sense of self, and I am a causal agent.
Okay ..
Come to a fork in the road ...left or right?
Hard Determinist - left or right, you went the way you did because it was always going to be that way. It is what it is ...
Soft Determinist - even though you think you decided between right/left, it was already decided. I'm fine with things for the most part
Free Willist - I went left/right because I chose to and whatever happens, happens.
A team of Norwegian scientists led by Ola Johannessen has been using satellites to scientifically measure ice in Greenland - inland ice, not just coastal ice. They have found that the Greenland ice sheet has been growing in thickness by 6cm per year (net spatially averaged increase of +5.4cm after accounting for the 2cm per year of coastal melting) for 11 years. But if you only look at a small piece of the ice sheet, Global Warming!!! I have no idea if Johannessen is a religious man, but there is no mention of God or the Bible in the report on their research.
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/O...growth_of_Greenland_Ice_Sheet_interior/(print)
I eagerly await the follow up to that 13 year old data.
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