Unseen wrote:
However, I don’t think a lay person should accept a philosopher’s word that he has a solution to a philosophical problem if it’s one that only other philosophers or people who can intelligently read philosophy can understand.

“I have solved the free will problem and if you read my 400 page treatise and have a solid backgro…

[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
“Evil” is defined in different ways in different times, places, and communities. In Sparta, for example, it wasn’t evil to murder deformed or weak babies.

But they were doing it for unselfish reasons: for the greater good.  That’s not so different from our conception of good and evil.

_Robert_ wrote:
This is the logic of christian apologists.

I was wondering when we’d hit post #55555. I missed it by one!

Unseen wrote:
Now, a final word on introducing the quantum world into the discussion. There is no predeterminism because quantum level events can influence events in the world of everyday Newtonian/Einsteinian physics.

I agree, and I feel responsible for potentially confusing a free will discussion with a mostly separate discussion on potential,…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
@robert “Evil” is defined in different ways in different times, places, and communities. In Sparta, for example, it wasn’t evil to murder deformed or weak babies. Even today, is abortion evil? Depends who you ask, doesn’t it?

Evil in the context of a “loving, all powerful god” is all and any suffering that he could easily prevent…[Read more]

@Robert

“Evil” is defined in different ways in different times, places, and communities. In Sparta, for example, it wasn’t evil to murder deformed or weak babies. Even today, is abortion evil? Depends who you ask, doesn’t it?

When i was a kid and the topic of original sin was in play i was just amazed anyone would buy into that nonsense. Even JP with his ridiculous casuistry would not stoop so low.

But i wonder if an extension of that thinking is not in play in the Christian mantra, ‘Who Killed Christ? The Jews killed Christ!’ And today all of those putative sins of…[Read more]

Free will (as gifted by a loving god) as a way to explain away the problem of evil is such a provincial human excuse in stupidity. The idea that Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world without “evil” is stupid. There could be no evil tempting serpent, LOL. The idea that a single act of disobedience (as defined by a dictator) by one person (Eve)…[Read more]

The first line of my above post should read “The notion of free will has many problems,…” (emphasis mine)