Posted on 10/21/2023 8:22:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
After more than 40 years of studying humans and other primates, Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky has reached the conclusion that virtually all human behavior is as far beyond our conscious control as the division of cells or the beating of our hearts. (Of course, he had to.)
Therefore, we mustn’t harshly judge such heretofore disdained folks as drunk drivers, serial criminals, Hamas terrorists, and those who bring 29 items to the “8 items or less” checkout lane.
Sapolsky said:
“The world is really screwed up and made much, much more unfair by the fact that we reward people and punish people for things they have no control over. We’ve got no free will. Stop attributing stuff to us that isn’t there.”
Yes, this screwed up world would be a much, much better place if we stopped rewarding and punishing people based on their behavior. Incredibly, Sapolsky is a MacArthur “genius” grant winner, proving that the people who bestow that award are utterly clueless. (Through no fault of their own, of course!) if (publir_show_ads) { document.write("" + ""); }
Indeed, the vast majority of neuroscientists and philosophers believe humans have at least some degree of free will. As do most of the rest of us. But perhaps we have no choice in the matter.
Sapolsky has a new book out, titled, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will. (I bet he just had to write it!) Doesn’t sound much like “science” to me. But maybe we should ask Dr. Fauci.
The book chronicles neurochemical influences that contribute to human behaviors, and analyzes time, short or long, before we do what we do. Sapolsky had previously written a bestseller called, “Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst,” which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and received other accolades.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
I will choose a path that’s clear.
If you choose not to decide
You still have made a choice
Freewill
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=urBpdyFCZmo&pp=ygUOZnJlZSB3aWxsIHJ1c2g%3D
Hey Stupid,
Me calling you stupid was a choice, free will at work, got it?
2nd post on this thread. That’s encouraging.
Thinking themselves wise, they become fools.
Yeah? Well, He’s an idiot
A person can become a new creature. In fact, they can become born again.
LOL!
RE: Yeah? Well, He’s an idiot
LOL, did you say that out of your own ‘free will’? Or did the chemicals in your brain impel you to say it? LMAO !!
I read this and got a headache.
That was not my freewill so...he must be right?
Through Jesus Christ.
Is that so?! He’s not God or a god!
People know what lies are, but they believe them anyway. And when some one writes a book saying that is OK, you can be assured that the book will get lots of press.
I can argue both sides of this debate.
My first question would be; We know placebo’s work. How do they work if consciousness does not influence the final result?
Our free will is limited to the attributes available at the level or frequency of consciousness that we have attained.
Through Jesus Christ.
Yes. Nothing is more documented in ancient history than the life of Jesus. Yet, these know-it-all professors know little about him.
The abuse of Science to try and ease the guilt of sin, will not work. It will still be there under all the lies.
Yeah. But judging people for right wing views is still allowed
In all my reading and listening to various religions’ viewpoints, I only recall one woman saying God made a mistake when he allowed free will.
I mutter so many times “well, thanks to free will——
that serial killer abducted little children”
“those knockout game teens got away with it again—witnesses shut up”
or “the man who pushed the woman onto the subway tracks to get killed ran away.”
The human race commit so much evil they are again as in the time of Noah. IMO
A priest who wrote a book about his experiences as one of the hundreds of exorcists said the average person got the wrong idea from such things as the movie The Exorcist. “They think the power of Satan is overwhelmingly enormous and strong and an equal opponent to the goodness of God. But Satan is a small part of God’s creation and nowhere near being equal.”
Hope he was right.
Starting around 1965, the favored explanations began to change radically. A person’s environment was considered less and less important in causing his behavior.Just as with Freudianism, behaviorism’s main idea was counterintuitive (that is, it ran against common sense). The behaviorists insisted that all of a person’s behavior was determined only by his lifelong history of rewards and punishments. Actions that had been rewarded (a smile, for example, that had brought a caress) were likely to be repeated, and actions that had been punished were likely to be suppressed. And that was it.
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