Free will

One of the joys for me of maintaining this blog in good working order is also one of the frustrations. I enjoy seeing what people think of my posts via the comments they leave on them. But frequently I'll be amazed at how a fairly simple idea, which I view as essentially unarguable, is twisted into complex knots by commenters who are so eager to maintain a belief, they ignore the facts I've presented. Or, if the facts are recognized, they are shape-shifted into something other than what they actually are. Now, I readily admit that I'm guilty at times…

Thanks to a recent article in New Scientist, Is Free Will an Illusion?, I learned about two new books on this subject. The one that appealed to me most was Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, by Robert M. Sapolsky -- a professor of biology, of neurology and neurological sciences, and of neurosurgery at Stanford. It arrived yesterday. I had no problem holding it up to take this photo, but I wanted to show how thick it was, 403 pages plus some appendices. I was worried that a book of this size could be heavy reading if the…

A few commenters on a recent post about how Paul Breer describes the Cosmic View and Local View of enlightenment in his book, Beyond Self-Realization: A Sectarian Path to Enlightenment, have noted that Breer was indicted in 2012 on a felony charge of sexually abusing a relative. I pointed out in my own comment that Breer speaks of being in prison for two years in both of his books about the dual illusion of free will and of an immaterial self or soul. In the first book I read, and liked a lot, he didn't mention what he was in…

Well, at long last I've finished Paul Breer's book, The Spontaneous Self: Viable Alternatives to Free Will, which I've been writing about recently.  I enjoyed it a lot. But then, I'm a big fan of the notion that free will is an illusion that we'd be better off not embracing. In the post I'll explain in my own words some of what struck me most strongly in the book.  Spontaneity. Breer opened my eyes to a fact that other writers on free will don't emphasize much. If we look upon our thoughts, emotions, and actions as not being produced by…

I like the idea of surrendering to a higher power. I just don't like the notion that this is God or some other supernatural entity, for I prefer my surrendering to be founded in reality, not illusion. I'm not sure, though, if surrendering is the right word. Acceptance seems more accurate, but it lacks the imagery of surrendering -- which for me conjures up two generals negotiating the terms of the end of a war that one has won and one has lost. In this case, what's being surrendered is a belief in free will, the subject I've been writing…

If a religion, spiritual path, or mystical realization could promise a very good chance that you'd be able to do away with feelings of blame, regret, and pride -- along with other negative or good-to-let-go-of emotions -- would you want to pursue that opportunity?  I sure would. Especially if that opportunity didn't involve believing anything that couldn't be demonstrated to be true. And since I no longer believe in God or any other supernatural entities, I'd give the opportunity bonus points if it was thoroughly secular. That's why I've been so enthused for quite a few years about seeing through…

I keep writing blog posts about free will for a couple of reasons. One, it's a fascinating subject that points to the heart of what religiosity is all about, and what atheism is all about. Two, some of the comments on my posts indicate that visitors to this blog have some mistaken notions about free will. Regarding religiosity and atheism, the only way free will could exist is if the complex web of causes and effects that result in determinism and chance (the only two proven options in our universe) somehow isn't operative in us humans. Meaning, some unknown supernatural…

A nice thing about writing on the subject of free will is that it's easy to explain why I'm doing it. I had no alternative. To put it in the words of a Doris Day song, "Whatever will be, will be." I've been writing about free will recently, but mostly by quoting the words of knowledgeable authors on this subject. In this post I'm going to take a more eclectic approach, sharing a variety of ideas about free will that have been rummaging through my mind the past few days. Trump's indictments. Here in the United States those of us…

As noted in my previous post about a book by Daniel Wegner that persuasively describes the illusion of free will, appropriately titled The Illusion of Conscious Will, in this post I'll share some of what Wegner says in a concluding chapter about why a belief in free will, though wrong, can be useful. That chapter is called "The Mind's Compass." Conscious will is the mind's compass. Like an actual compass, which does no actual steering of a ship, free will indicates what is happening with a person, even though it also doesn't do any actual "steering." Wegner writes, "Just as…

As I said in my previous post about Sartre and how his view of freedom bugs me because I don't believe in free will, Sartre takes it for granted that because he feels like he is free to choose his actions, this is proof that free will actually exists. This is wrong. It goes against what is known about the human brain. So because I realize how entrenched a belief that they possess free will is in the minds of most people, including commenters on this blog, I dug out what I consider to be one of the best books…