God and his Free Will Problem.
I wrote a short piece on God’s free will and the issues it can cause with defining himself, and even ideas like the inability for him to commit suicide. Check it out. I threatened a second piece. Here...
View ArticleThe Benefits of Dispelling the Myth of Libertarian Free Will
I‘d be interested in generating some conversation in the comments here. Let’s imagine the truth of the myth of libertarian free will, for the sake of argument (though I have outlined this many times in...
View ArticleQuarantine Approach to Crime and Punishment
As a determinist who believes that libertarian free will is an illusion, the argument over whether we have libertarian free will or not is somewhat passé. The interesting debates happen over whether we...
View ArticleFree Will: “We are influenced, but not determined” – the 80-20% approach...
I was having a conversation by email the other day concerning free will, and I was reminded of this I wrote some time back. It is as a result of one of the most common (and I would argue rather naive)...
View ArticleWith a Lack of Free Will, Do We Still Have Moral Responsibility?
The term “moral responsibility” is an interesting one in the context of moral philosophy and free will and determinism. The question is often raised as to whether we can have moral responsibility given...
View ArticleReactive Attitudes: the Psychology of Free Will
On the thread to the post on whether or not moral responsibility exists in light of the falsity of libertarian free will, the idea of the ingrained psychology of free will came up. I thought I would...
View ArticleFree Will Skepticism and Criminal Behavior: Caruso’s Public Health-Quarantine...
I am reposting this because it has come up in conversations about free will recently and is thus pertinent again: The great Gregg Caruso has produced a fascinating looking paper which I can’t wait to...
View ArticleIndoctrination And Free Will
Free will is a fairly common subject on this blog, and I enjoy exploring the consequences of a universe where our actions are deterministic. If our actions are simply the result of our physiology, this...
View ArticleFree Will / Islam Talks in Fareham & Bristol in Next 2 Weeks
If you are local to myself, in the Fareham and Gosport area of Hampshire, please come along next Wednesday (19th) to my free will talk. The Facebook event page is here. The week after that, on July...
View ArticleWe’re All Slaves To Luck, And That’s Okay
I have recently been introduced to the idea of moral luck by my friend Aaron Rabinowitz (host of the excellent fatalist philosophy podcast Embrace the Void). This idea was first proposed in an essay by...
View ArticleA Free Will Challenge for Christians!
This advert was placed in the Free Inquiry by a friend of mine. What do you think? I would love for Christians to properly engage with this argument. WELL MEDITATED HATE IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT FREE WILL...
View ArticleThe Causes of Human Behavior – Good and Bad
A friend of mine recently sent this to me; I thought it would be good for stimulus, summing up some of Robert Sapolsky’s writing. I would love to find time to read Behave – it sounds a tour de force....
View ArticleThe Inconsistency of Free Will Apologetics
One of the proposed solutions to the problem of evil or the problem of divine hiddenness is that the god in question cannot violate free will. Suffering exists on Earth as a function of mankind’s...
View ArticleFree Will Talk in Winchester on Thursday
These and other crucial questions are investigated with a deft touch and uses recent and important scientific findings to support the thesis supplying a valuable overview to the subject. I am giving my...
View ArticleAdam and Eve, and Failing the First Free Will Test
I have posted a number of times on the Genesis account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. One commenter on one of the posts reminded me of my favourite meme: And this is nowhere more apparent than...
View ArticleFree Will as an Abstract Construct
I am a conceptual nominalist so that when it comes to abstract ideas, I see them as constructed by the mind(s). In this way, humans create (using language, maths and so on) a map of reality as a way of...
View ArticleFree Will or Predestination? Let the Bible Guide You…
Here are a number of quotes from the Bible that certainly muddy the waters in terms of advocating for free will. A few comments are interspersed (from my friend Julian) in between these quotes: God...
View ArticleThe Exodus Debunked: Hardening of Hearts
The Exodus is a story that is hugely important to Christians (and Jews), as can be seen by some comments by Christians on the previous articles in this series. I want to continue my claims that the...
View ArticleBrain Scans Predicting Social Bonds
This was a fascinating article from the New York Times that looks at the predictive power of brain scans. New research suggests the roots of friendship extend even deeper than previously suspected....
View ArticleFree Will vs. The Argument From Ignorance
Argumentum ad ignorantiam – (argument from ignorance, or appeal to ignorance) A logical fallacy that claims the truth of a proposition based on a lack of contrary evidence. Humans do terrible things...
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