Naturalism and free will cannot co-exist
phukyanks
Published
03/18/2014
Moderator do please do NOT delete this blog, i have just
copy/paste from debate.org, but i am the owner of those arguments as you
can see in my profile: About me : "Otherwise known as phukyanks from
ebw"
https://www.debate.org/andymcstab/
Naturalism and belief in free will cannot co-exist together.
Naturalism is the idea that only natural forces are present in the universe, but free will cannot be invoked without supernatural explanation.
The reason is very simple. The decisions we make according to the naturalist are nothing more than reactions, reacting to predetermined stimuli. For instance, a person is born and they are a genetic robot. A person develops a unique character and psychology when genetics interact with environmental and experiential factors. A person then makes decisions based on genetic inclination (leading to for example brain chemistry) and psychology/previous experience.
What room is there for free will here?
Whenever a decision is made a concoction of ingredients such as psychology, genetics and experience are all thrown into a pot and the reaction is determined by the ingredients that went into it. The naturalist therefore has no basis to argue for free will as he is suggesting that any reaction can decide its own fate, rather than is predecided by the ingredients.
This is fundamentally at odds with the naturalistic world view as they can only invoke the supernatural to argue for free will. Otherwise it needs to be explained when there has ever been a reaction which decided its own fate. Such an idea is preposterous to physics, so it cannot be held by a naturalist.
https://www.debate.org/andymcstab/
Naturalism and belief in free will cannot co-exist together.
Naturalism is the idea that only natural forces are present in the universe, but free will cannot be invoked without supernatural explanation.
The reason is very simple. The decisions we make according to the naturalist are nothing more than reactions, reacting to predetermined stimuli. For instance, a person is born and they are a genetic robot. A person develops a unique character and psychology when genetics interact with environmental and experiential factors. A person then makes decisions based on genetic inclination (leading to for example brain chemistry) and psychology/previous experience.
What room is there for free will here?
Whenever a decision is made a concoction of ingredients such as psychology, genetics and experience are all thrown into a pot and the reaction is determined by the ingredients that went into it. The naturalist therefore has no basis to argue for free will as he is suggesting that any reaction can decide its own fate, rather than is predecided by the ingredients.
This is fundamentally at odds with the naturalistic world view as they can only invoke the supernatural to argue for free will. Otherwise it needs to be explained when there has ever been a reaction which decided its own fate. Such an idea is preposterous to physics, so it cannot be held by a naturalist.
3 Comments