Scientific Justification for Free Will?

[Divine Insight]

Is there any scientific justification for the notion of Free Will?

Question #1. If you believe their is, can you please state your scientific evidence for the existence of Free Will.

Question #2. If you believe there is no scientific justification for the notion of Free Will, then please explain how we can have any scientific justification for holding anyone responsible for their actions. In fact, wouldn't the very notion of personal responsibility be scientifically unsupportable?

[Philbert]

What makes you suspect that? It seems to me that either an intelligent designer exists or doesn't exist.

This is an excellent question which would seem to merit it's own thread. I'm writing the opening post for such a thread now, will provide a link to new thread here shortly.

[olavisjo]

.

I see no reason to think any of those things are absurd, I may think that some of those things are not true but it is not because they are absurd.

If you don't see a reason to think that the behavior of electrons is weird you are probably in a minority. Weird ideas can become acceptable through familiarity, but they are still weird.

JBS Haldane - no fool - said "The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."

I was using the term absurd in the scope of logic, Reductio ad absurdum, not the popular parlance of weird or strange.

I always wonder when people worry about things like the first cause. If a theist asks me 'well, what caused the big bang?' I tell them I haven't the foggiest idea. Being an atheist doesn't mean knowing all the answers - it means knowing what the answer isn't. I think even atheists forget that sometimes.

We both know that the answer isn't nothing.

On the information issue, I don't see why things have to be 'tracked' at all...

Information that is not tracked at all, does not exist.

I have a billion euros but unfortunately it is not tracked by any bank or contract or paper and ink or any metal or anything at all, people tell me that it does not exist but I know better.

In the same way, an electron that is not tracked at all does not exist.

[10CC]

We both know that the answer isn't nothing.

I have tired of asking this question of theists.
Define nothing will you?

[olavisjo]

.

I have tired of asking this question of theists.
Define nothing will you?

noth·ing pronoun \ˈnə-thiŋ\

Definition of NOTHING

1 : not any thing

[10CC]

.

I have tired of asking this question of theists.
Define nothing will you?

noth·ing pronoun \ˈnə-thiŋ\

Definition of NOTHING

1 : not any thing

Yes well actually I asked YOU to define nothing. You still haven't but you have used a definition of something the dictionary calls nothing. Yes?

[olavisjo]

.

I have tired of asking this question of theists.
Define nothing will you?

noth·ing pronoun \ˈnə-thiŋ\

Definition of NOTHING

1 : not any thing

Yes well actually I asked YOU to define nothing. You still haven't but you have used a definition of something the dictionary calls nothing. Yes?

I am sorry, but you are right, I did give the definition of something. Let me try again...

Definition of

[10CC]

.

I have tired of asking this question of theists.
Define nothing will you?

noth·ing pronoun \ˈnə-thiŋ\

Definition of NOTHING

1 : not any thing

Yes well actually I asked YOU to define nothing. You still haven't but you have used a definition of something the dictionary calls nothing. Yes?

I am sorry, but you are right, I did give the definition of something. Let me try again...

Definition of

What? I didn't hear you. Oh that's right there is not anything that is nothing. Damn that blows all of the theists arguments out of the non nothing that existed before existence, doesn't it? Oh well they've been making stuff up for a long time, I'm sure they can start again.

[instantc]

.

I have tired of asking this question of theists.
Define nothing will you?

noth·ing pronoun \ˈnə-thiŋ\

Definition of NOTHING

1 : not any thing

Yes well actually I asked YOU to define nothing. You still haven't but you have used a definition of something the dictionary calls nothing. Yes?

I am sorry, but you are right, I did give the definition of something. Let me try again...

Definition of

What? I didn't hear you. Oh that's right there is not anything that is nothing. Damn that blows all of the theists arguments out of the non nothing that existed before existence, doesn't it? Oh well they've been making stuff up for a long time, I'm sure they can start again.

Or perhaps this would just support their arguments. If there is no such thing as nothing, then there had to be something that caused the universe to existence.

[10CC]

.

I have tired of asking this question of theists.
Define nothing will you?

noth·ing pronoun \ˈnə-thiŋ\

Definition of NOTHING

1 : not any thing

Yes well actually I asked YOU to define nothing. You still haven't but you have used a definition of something the dictionary calls nothing. Yes?

I am sorry, but you are right, I did give the definition of something. Let me try again...

Definition of

What? I didn't hear you. Oh that's right there is not anything that is nothing. Damn that blows all of the theists arguments out of the non nothing that existed before existence, doesn't it? Oh well they've been making stuff up for a long time, I'm sure they can start again.

Or perhaps this would just support their arguments. If there is no such thing as nothing, then there had to be something that caused the universe to existence.

What was before the universe? And what caused it to exist?

[instantc]

.

I have tired of asking this question of theists.
Define nothing will you?

noth·ing pronoun \ˈnə-thiŋ\

Definition of NOTHING

1 : not any thing

Yes well actually I asked YOU to define nothing. You still haven't but you have used a definition of something the dictionary calls nothing. Yes?

I am sorry, but you are right, I did give the definition of something. Let me try again...

Definition of

What? I didn't hear you. Oh that's right there is not anything that is nothing. Damn that blows all of the theists arguments out of the non nothing that existed before existence, doesn't it? Oh well they've been making stuff up for a long time, I'm sure they can start again.

Or perhaps this would just support their arguments. If there is no such thing as nothing, then there had to be something that caused the universe to existence.

What was before the universe? And what caused it to exist?

My point is, your claim that 'nothing' is an incoherent concept supports Olavisjo's claim that it wasn't nothing that caused the universe to exist. I'm not saying it does anything to prove God.