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An evolutionist denies that we have free will - 6/29/2008 7:46:42 PM
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cih92
Posts: 109
Joined: 4/18/2005
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William Provine is an atheistic evolutionist who denies that people have free will. He is a professor at Cornell University. I watched a videotaped debate between him and Phillip Johnson. In that debate, he denied that we have free will, but he never defined what free will is. Does anyone know what William Provine means by "free will"? Different people have different ideas of what free will is. For example, some people think that free will means the ability to do otherwise and other people think that free will means to act according to one's desires.
< Message edited by cih92 -- 6/29/2008 7:57:28 PM >
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RE: An evolutionist denies that we have free will - 6/29/2008 9:20:53 PM
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evry1needsgod
Posts: 500
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quote:
For example, some people think that free will means the ability to do otherwise and other people think that free will means to act according to one's desires.
Can you explain this? These sound the same. For example, If I act according to my desire by clicking the "snooze" button in the morning, I have chosen to do something "otherwise" by choosing something other than waking up - that is, taking 5 extra minutes to sleep. I don't see a difference in this statement, so could you elaborate?
Speaking of your thread, do you know of any information that William Provine possibly provided to back up his claim? Did he mention any evidence for why he believes this, or did he just make the statement? I'm not an evolutionist, but this is very intriguing! I'd like to know why/how this is a possibility.
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RE: An evolutionist denies that we have free will - 6/29/2008 9:49:46 PM
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gluadys
Posts: 1000
Joined: 4/26/2008
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quote:
ORIGINAL: cih92
William Provine is an atheistic evolutionist who denies that people have free will. He is a professor at Cornell University. I watched a videotaped debate between him and Phillip Johnson. In that debate, he denied that we have free will, but he never defined what free will is. Does anyone know what William Provine means by "free will"? Different people have different ideas of what free will is. For example, some people think that free will means the ability to do otherwise and other people think that free will means to act according to one's desires.
Whatever he believes about free will, it is not intrinsic to evolutionary theory. This is something supporters of evolution will disagree on, because it is independent of the theory.
Just as it is something Christians disagree on. Calvin also denied that people have free will.
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RE: An evolutionist denies that we have free will - 6/30/2008 12:40:30 AM
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cih92
Posts: 109
Joined: 4/18/2005
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quote:
ORIGINAL: evry1needsgod
quote:
For example, some people think that free will means the ability to do otherwise and other people think that free will means to act according to one's desires.
Can you explain this? These sound the same. For example, If I act according to my desire by clicking the "snooze" button in the morning, I have chosen to do something "otherwise" by choosing something other than waking up - that is, taking 5 extra minutes to sleep. I don't see a difference in this statement, so could you elaborate?
Speaking of your thread, do you know of any information that William Provine possibly provided to back up his claim? Did he mention any evidence for why he believes this, or did he just make the statement? I'm not an evolutionist, but this is very intriguing! I'd like to know why/how this is a possibility.
Let me explain by what I meant when I said, "the ability to do otherwise", by giving an example. Suppose at a particular date and time, a person chose to play baseball. The ability to do otherwise means that if that person were to go back in time to that particular date and time, he could have chosen to not play baseball.
Acting according to one's desires does not necessarily mean that one has the ability to do otherwise. If I always have the desire to do X and I always act according to my desires, then I will always choose X. I would not choose otherwise.
In the debate that I saw, William Provine denied that people have free will without backing it up. He did not explain why he believed that. He did not explain what he meant by, "free will".
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