Originally posted by Jude
View Post
I would agree with you that the qualia makes the choice so that is free will first, outcome second. As Augustine said, Faith comes before Knowledge. This is part of what he meant.
I wouldn't describe what we believe as deterministic but the logical consequences of what we believe are deterministic. And yes, we can change, but with great effort and dispair about our former beliefs.
I think the message of the Bible is that we are responsible for our choices, but all choices lead to sin and thus to dead ends, in this world and only Christ can extricate us. The atheist and secularists who don't believe this must get rid of god from their bubble, like a group of republicans will be repellant to an odd democrat who walks in (and vice versa).
A case in point that agrees with your idea of choice, before the big bang physicists were adamantly opposed to believing things that had no observational evidence. But when the big bang happened, and people started flocking to the first church of Christ of the Big Bang (as one astronomer put it), then many in physics started looking for ways that there not be a beginning and thus no being to start the process. Do a google ngram on 'many worlds'. That term takes off about the time the big bang is proven. Why? The scientific community was making their choice. Today in spite of not a single observational evidence of the multiverse, physicists believe if they can write an 11 variable equation, it must have existence and reality. That is String Theory. But just because we can write such an equation and match some of it to reality doesn't mean the rest is real. To beleive that is nothing more than a revival of the Pythagorean religion in which math is the God. The formerly pooh-poohed multiverse was now accepted for the simple reason, it avoided having a bothersome God hanging around to tell us how to behave.
Comment