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Somebody said "my actions aren't predetermined".

Somebody on this site said "my actions aren't predetermined". Could I please have some examples. When did humans start making choices? I don't think the cave man/woman made choices. "what's for dinner Wilma? I don't know, Fred, should we have beef or chicken? I don't care hon, you chose."

It seems that religion is about choices. Someone introduced it. Heaven-hell, god-devil. good-evil. Choice was defined at some point. Choice seems a wonderful concept if you're religious. When I'm around xians, their always asking me to choose. "You don't want to go to hell, wouldn't you rather go to heaven", they say. You don't have to think. You MUST choose.

Please forgive me if I'm too simplistic. I've been an atheist for most of my life. But, I haven't asked questions as to why I do the things I do. I thought I did them based on my thoughts. I certainly didn't choose to be an atheist. How could I be anything else?

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Permalink Reply by Freedom of Anonymity on January 18, 2010 at 11:41pm

Logic, reasoning, pragmatics and skepticism aid far more in "coping" than metaphysical bullshit derived from believing in a First Cause.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Torpy on January 16, 2010 at 10:39pm

Maybe predetermined isn't the right word, but actions certainly lie in a line of causation that is natural. There is at least as far as anyone knows no other explanation.
Free will as I've posted a few times is an emergent property that seems to exist based on our perception of reality. The natural basis of causation happens at a scale so small and fast that we don't perceive it. When we see a movie, we see a movie rather than a succession of individual pictures (referring to old-school film rather than digital of course).
One option here is to become a strict determinist and declare it's all for naught, choice is an illusion and no one is responsible for their actions. Another option is to act 'as if' choice exists, because the perception of free will is enough to act on.

All that having been said, (1) it's not clear to me that I could just choose to believe in god. Too many other facts and evidence is available and I'm not capable of ignoring so much data in favor of a contradictory conclusion, (2) I can choose not to believe in god and choose not to go to hell (if such a place existed). Their god is making the choice in that case.

Jason
ps. If a guy points a gun at my head and doesn't shoot me, should I be grateful?