Posted: Jan 07, 2017 2:20 pm
DavidMcC wrote:romansh wrote:...
David ... I did not say that you were talking about the universe. I did say your description of [the requirements for] free will is equally descriptive of the universe at large.
It appears that you still have faith in Sam Harris' flawe experiment on the timing of neural signals, right?
(It may have been copied by others, but they merely copied the mistake, so inevitably reproduced the faulty result.)
There have been various experiments of various types, going way back, starting I think with Libet. Possibly before, I do not know. Did Sam Harris do any? I wasn't aware of that.
In any case, none of the experiments are conclusive, not yet at least, but they do raise doubts and hint that we might not have the free will that we think we do.
Of itself, alleging flaws in experiments doesn't persuade me. A theist might say that intercessionary prayer experiments are flawed and still leave room for prayer to work.
The larger problem is that no one, as far as I can see, can come up with even a description of a mechanism or a way that would seem to allow us to have it (free will). I'm wondering if you do?