Uncommon Descent Serving The Intelligent Design Community

Evolutionists Are Now Embracing Determinism and Denying Free Will

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Evolution is the most influential theory in the history of science, but where exactly does it lead? Well aside from eugenics, abortion, population control, euthanasia, anti realism, blackballing of opponents, false histories and atheism, evolution also leads to determinism. Of course like so many of its metaphysical conclusions, evolution leads to determinism only because determinism first led to evolution. For determinism was one of the planks in the so-called “Enlightenment” period, a century before Darwin. So like the French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace from two centuries ago, today a growing number of evolutionists hold to the anti realism belief that free will is an illusion. For Harvard’s Gabriel Kreiman, our actions are governed by our neurons, and how they fire off is like the toss of a coin:  Read more

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If libertarian free will is false, that wouldn't mean that human beings are not conscious, nor that they are blind, nor that they do not make choices. It would just mean that there is nothing that occurs within our bodies that contradicts (or transcends) physical law. When an ant chooses a path back to the colony, even if the choice can be shown to be determined mainly by the pheromones on the ground (along with prior experiences of the ant), and even if there is no conscious deliberation in the mind of the ant, there is nothing incoherent about calling the selection of that path a choice. That remains true even if the behaviors of the ant are finally understood completely in terms of physical processes. Thus, a choice is a perfectly coherent concept even if determinism was true. And here, yet again, the issue of libertarianism arises in the context of ID, with ID proponents staunchly defending metaphysical libertarianism. Some people here claim that ID requires libertarianism (because that is what is meant by "intelligent cause" in ID), others say that ID demonstrates libertarianism to be true (by ruling out lawlike causes for certain phenomena), and still others claim that ID is fully compatible with determinism (although nobody can explain how that might be true). ID is very mixed up in the metaphysics of dualism and libertarianism. There's nothing wrong with that per se, but there should be a recognition of what the commitments actually are.RDFish
June 24, 2014
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My jaw dropped during the William Lane Craig Vs. Alex Rosenberg debate when Dr. Craig unleashed his 8 arguments against naturalism. Dr. Rosenberg didn't even attempt to refute his arguments. The funny thing is, many atheists believe he actually won the debate, but how do you win a debate when you don't actually exist? 8 arguments against naturalism: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DU_K_a7fW1APhil2232
June 24, 2014
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Would the output of a BMW factory be considered deterministic? If so, I would think Intelligent Design is the Ultimate Driving Machine. Unless you believe in the Blind Automaker.ppolish
June 24, 2014
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