TheProspect
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- Joined
- Feb 5, 2016
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Arguing for absolute determinism is indeed a very hard argument to make compelling to those whose intuition (or own programming ironically enough) cause them to reject being open-minded to the idea.
On the other hand, another argument that is hard to make is one that absolute free will exists. For absolute free will to exist, we would have to have the freedom to act absolutely independent of our genetics and prior conditioning — which we do not. Yes, we can be aware of our conditioning and use that knowledge to attempt to overcome it a lot better than if we were ignorant to it, but it would be false to claim that said genetics & conditioning have absolutely no influence over us once we are aware of it. No matter how analytical and self-aware a person thinks they are, they are still largely governed by spontaneous thoughts and fleeting emotions.
As I said, although I don’t believe free will exists, I live my life as if it does. I actually hold a similar mindset to you @BackInTheGame78, in that I live my life by taking 100% responsibility for my behaviour and results in life. I do my best to overcome any unhelpful or unproductive patterns of thought and behaviour, and have been quite successful in doing so. I also expect others to be able to at least attempt to do the same.
