free will

is one of Rush's better songs.

 

I thought it was a movie about a whale.

 

determinism came up recently in a debate, so i figured i'd bump this.

 

True dat.

 

Causality is the only absolute truth at the classical (Newtonian/relativity) level.

At the quantum level, outcomes "appear" to be without necessary cause (radioactive decay, virtual particles, etc.), though Einstein was adamant to his deathbed that this was because we simply cannot see the causes. Hidden Variables

But unlike religion, theory without reproduceability is not theory at all, it is hypothesis, so Einstein was mostly ignored near the end of his life.

 

determinism rules!

i do believe this to be the case. i'm at work right now and can't expound, but, yeah -- previous actions determine future actions.

if you could possibly know all the variables, you could predict the future.

 

and i have agreed with einstein since i did a report on him in middle school and became a voracious reader of his work. basically, we're not smart enough to understand everything yet. that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try -- we absolutely should. our theories and discoveries will lead to more theories and discoveries -- the fruit of our labors will be most useful to the next generation. einstein accepted this. it's folly to think that THIS generation (whenever THIS is/was) will be the one to "figure it all out". it absolutely makes sense to believe in the so-called hidden variables. when it's all said and done, i think we'll look back and see that we were just looking at shadows on the wall of a cave.

 

Free Will begins at our birth. We are born innocent to grow into a mature person to either accept God or reject God. God will not force us to accept or reject Him. If God controlled our beliefs or disbelief in God then He would have a bunch of robots.

God made our souls in heaven and has sent and now sending His souls/children to earth to be born innocent thru woman. God has created a set number of souls to be born and when the last soul enters woman then this age as we know it will end.

As far as our lives being predetermined (determinism) an example would be Esau. This was Jacobs brother and God hated Esau. Why? Because Esau did not stand against Lucifer when he rebelled.

 

what if someone never learns of god?

 

do you have any evidence of this? i mean, aside from what people said happened.