popeye1945 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 01, 2025 3:26 am
Gary Childress wrote: ↑Wed Oct 01, 2025 2:57 am
popeye1945 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 01, 2025 2:55 am
Well, if there is no such thing as human action, and all organisms are reactionary creatures, that means they are all governed by their larger reality/earth, thus, they are not free agents but parts of a whole. Yourself is much larger than you imagine.
I don't see how that ties in with my example of choosing to react one way over another. How does that demonstrate that choosing one action over another isn't done with free will?
No matter how many times you change your mind, it is always motivated with intent, thus a reaction to something outside yourself or to something within your larger self/the Earth.
Why do you believe, absolutely, that 'motivated with intent' is 'a reaction' to some thing outside of 'you'?
Can no human being be 'motivated, with intent' to just want to 'live in peace', for example, without 'the intent', or without 'the motivation', from some thing outside, like, for example, when you are just laying on a bed or sitting on a chair?
Also, what even is your 'larger self', exactly?
Would not the 'larger self', just be the biggest or largest One, Self, or what some might just call the Spirit, Allah, God, Enlightened One anyway?
And, if this One is the One with 'first cause' and/or is the 'unmoved Mover', then this would imply that It is the Acting, or the non 'reacting' One, right?
popeye1945 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 01, 2025 2:31 am
That which is motivated is a reaction, not an action. The one thing you cannot do as an organism is not react to your environment or your larger self/Earth.
Why do you use the 'earth' word, in relation to the 'larger' word, when obviously the earth is nothing but a very tiny insignificant thing, in Life, Itself?
popeye1945 wrote: ↑Wed Oct 01, 2025 2:31 am
Even a decisive lack of behaviour is a reaction to your environment. This, to get a bit biblical, is participation in divinity you are at one with. You do have choices, and if that is all you need to convince yourself of free will, you've got it, but all choices are motivated from without and thus reactions.
Obviously all choices are motivated from outside of 'the body' as well as from within 'the body'. Was this just not an already known Fact?
Whatever happens, happens because of pre-existing events. So, whatever will happen, will happen, also, because of previous events. But, what is just as obvious is that you human beings, from a 'certain age' have the 'ability to make choices', over whether you behave, or misbehave. Which will, obviously, cause, an effect, (to get biblical), in whether you human beings live, here, on earth, as it is in a 'heaven-like' place, or, as it is in a 'hell-like' place, here.
your individual 'choices' make all 'the difference'.
And, it is 'your ability to choose', which some refer to as 'free will', itself.