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Neuroscientists Should Set a High Bar for Evidence against Free Will
Scientific American ^ | 4 March 2025 | Aaron Schurger, Adina Roskies & Uri Maoz

Posted on 03/07/2025 10:37:17 AM PST by ShadowAce

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1 posted on 03/07/2025 10:37:17 AM PST by ShadowAce
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To: ShadowAce

Liberals are all mind-melded with one or more demons. They don’t have free will. These shrinks probably get their test subjects from that pool.


2 posted on 03/07/2025 10:41:02 AM PST by GingisK
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To: ShadowAce

There are those who think that life has nothing left to chance

A host of holy horrors to direct our aimless dance

A planet of playthings, we dance on the strings of powers we cannot perceive

The stars aren’t aligned or the Gods are malign, blame is better to give than receive

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice

You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill

I will choose a path that’s clear, I will choose Freewill

There are those who think that they were dealt a losing hand
The cards were stacked against them they weren’t born in Lotus Land

All preordained, a prisoner in chains, a victim of venomous fate

Kicked in the face, you can pray for a place, in heaven’s unearthly estate

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice

You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that’s clear, I will choose Freewill

Each of us, a cell of awareness, imperfect and incomplete
Genetic blends with uncertain ends on a fortune hunt that’s far too fleet

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice

You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that’s clear, I will choose Freewill


3 posted on 03/07/2025 10:41:08 AM PST by algore
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To: algore

The great Neil Peart. RIP


4 posted on 03/07/2025 10:44:21 AM PST by Damifino (The true measure of a man is found in what he would do if he knew no one would ever find out.)
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To: algore

Heard that song a thousand times..never read the words.

Queen and Rush...two bands with some very intelligent guys.


5 posted on 03/07/2025 10:44:53 AM PST by dp0622 (Tried a coup, a fake tax story, tramp slander, Russia nonsense, impeachment and a virus. They lost.)
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To: ShadowAce

To paraphrase Bill Clinton, it depends on the definition of free will.


6 posted on 03/07/2025 10:45:33 AM PST by ComputerGuy ( )
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To: ShadowAce

I don’t anyone really disbelieves in free will, even those that insist that it doesn’t exist. Otherwise, why would they choose to bother, about anything?

Maybe they mean that no one other then them has free will. That’s a bit sociopathic, though.


7 posted on 03/07/2025 10:45:57 AM PST by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: rightwingcrazy

The religion forum used to rage over that question some years back.


8 posted on 03/07/2025 10:53:36 AM PST by ShadowAce (Linux - The Ultimate Windows Service Pack )
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To: algore

, I will choose Freewill


The issue is, is your free will absolute or is it subject to something?

I don’t think you can argue it is absolute, independent of any outside influence.

This does not mean we are robots. Just that there is no absolute free will. Jesus says we are slaves to sin.

A further thought, is God Sovereign? Again, that does not mean we are robots. Our free will is subject to God.


9 posted on 03/07/2025 10:53:44 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: ShadowAce
People will latch on to anything to try to excuse their actions rather then take responsibility.

A couple of decades ago they tried to sell the idea that you only have a finite amount of self control so you should never restrain yourself because then you would not have any left should you need it.

It was nonsense of course. Self denial actually expands the amount of self control you have but people wanted an excuse to indulge their bad behavior.

10 posted on 03/07/2025 10:53:55 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: PeterPrinciple
Slaves can and do rebel.

And just because God can do something does not mean He does.

11 posted on 03/07/2025 10:56:13 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear ( Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.)
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear

Slaves can and do rebel.
And just because God can do something does not mean He does.


not sure of your point? are we disagreeing?

my point is that free will is not absolute, independent of out side influences.


12 posted on 03/07/2025 11:00:47 AM PST by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued, but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere)
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To: ShadowAce

We have free will. We can make choices that are not based solely on the attractiveness of a desirable object, but based on other considerations such as the possible effects on another person, or ourselves, or the collectivity.

The left is passionate about denying free will, because then they will be able to justify NOT punishing criminals for their actions and allow them to do whatever they want.


13 posted on 03/07/2025 11:03:37 AM PST by I want the USA back (America is once again GREAT!)
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To: ShadowAce
This is what happens when an academic field has completely run out of relevant ideas.

They sit starring at their monitors ever fearful they must publish something, anything to keep the grant money coming.

14 posted on 03/07/2025 11:05:49 AM PST by usurper (AI was born with a birth defect.)
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To: ShadowAce

Shrinks still use ECT and also use a plethora of other pharmacology that creates irreversible brain damage, thus the armies of homeless. Also all insane mass shooters, family destroyers and other are on psych drugs. Psychiatrists are experts only in destruction. Of course they would say that all behavior is biochemical. It’s self serving claptrap.


15 posted on 03/07/2025 11:13:56 AM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: ShadowAce

Dualist view: the mind has free will. It can unconsciously choose whether to think on a conceptual level, or not think and stay concrete bound, Once the mind chooses, the brain follows.


16 posted on 03/07/2025 11:14:52 AM PST by mjp (pro-freedom & pro-wealth $)
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To: ShadowAce

Mark


17 posted on 03/07/2025 11:16:51 AM PST by kelly4c
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To: ShadowAce

There is no maverick molecule in the universe. If there were, then God isn’t sovereign. Therefore, he wouldn’t be God.

— RC Sproul


18 posted on 03/07/2025 1:35:30 PM PST by Salvavida (NS)
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To: ShadowAce

the 10 commandments are the boundaries of free will...


19 posted on 03/07/2025 1:44:20 PM PST by heavy metal (maga... make asylums great again...)
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To: ShadowAce

The existence of conscious free-will is more certain and obvious than the existence of the material world. While I think both exist, it is epistemically possible that the sensory input I get is illusionary and there is nothing like the material world. However, as pointed out by Descartes and others: Cogito Ergo Sum.


20 posted on 03/07/2025 2:21:41 PM PST by AndyTheBear (Certified smarter than average for my species)
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