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Re:Gut bacteria may offer a treatment for autism by barrkel on Saturday December 08, 2018 @04:51PM (#18637740)
The ideas of free will, consequences and deterrence; morality, punishment and justice; mental illness and life choice determinism; all exist in different planes, different parallel reasoning systems about the world - rational, moral, biological/sociological. You can make linkages between the different metaphors of explication, but mixing and matching is a recipe for inconsistency. Worse, if you think mostly in a different plane to someone else, you'll forever talk past one another.
Re:Gut bacteria may offer a treatment for autism by intralizee on Saturday December 08, 2018 @06:39PM (#18638184)
I think the people who believe in free will can understand the notion of free will doesn't exist. They just have a problem with their ego and will not let go of the satisfaction the idea brings to them.
Re:Gut bacteria may offer a treatment for autism by theprotocol on Sunday December 09, 2018 @12:14AM (#18639449)
I'm not sure which discussion branch to reply to you on.

But I would like to put forth the argument that people get closer to gaining the required awareness that would make them free as time passes and they gain experience. This is similar to limits in math.

That is not to say that everyone moves in that direction at the same speed - that part is indeed out of one's hands. But it is undeniable that experience increases, and with it, awareness and thus freedom.

I don't think I believe this because of ego. I just think it happens to be true.

Re:Gut bacteria may offer a treatment for autism by intralizee on Sunday December 09, 2018 @01:17AM (#18639664)
I think the assertion you make is flawed. Just because you've reached a point in time where you had experienced a great number of events and variables. Does not mean you are capable of having any will in how you're shaped into gaining a freedom or awareness that is truly your own.
Re:Gut bacteria may offer a treatment for autism by theprotocol on Sunday December 09, 2018 @01:43AM (#18639735)
That's a valid view, but I don't think it's possible for us to settle this definitively. I will think more on why I seem to find that free will is real.

Just to clarify my view: I think there is a threshold of experience beyond which one becomes "formed" (as in, the word formative). Beyond that point, I think free will, and consequently, personhood is real and we're not just automatons. This is not a new argument; I just wanted to clarify my view.

Re:Gut bacteria may offer a treatment for autism by intralizee on Sunday December 09, 2018 @01:55AM (#18639760)
Understood. I enjoy the chance of enlightenment whenever possible. I'm doubtful if you will ever make me switch sides because I've thought deeply about this topic than most I assume because of misfortune by birth. I think the world would be greatly better of a system if the majority viewed reality similar to me and how there is no free will. Anyway have a good night!