{"id":1575,"date":"2012-01-21T20:22:26","date_gmt":"2012-01-22T01:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/?p=1575"},"modified":"2012-12-03T10:14:44","modified_gmt":"2012-12-03T15:14:44","slug":"free-will-and-timeless-observers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/unequallyyoked\/2012\/01\/free-will-and-timeless-observers.html","title":{"rendered":"Free Will and Timeless Observers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

After reading my post on decidedly undivine First Causes, one commenter had a question about my position on free will. \u00a0I had referenced a quote from Arcadia<\/a><\/em>,<\/p>\n

If you could stop every atom in its position and direction, and if your mind could comprehend all the actions thus suspended, then if you were really, really good at algebra you could write the formula for all the future; and although nobody can be so clever as to do it, the formula must exist just as if one could.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Butterfly5906 asked the reasonable next question:<\/p>\n

Do you believe we have free will? If so, how do you reconcile that with the Tom Stoppard quote? Theoretically, we could predict the movement of all of the atoms in our brains, and the behavior of our neurons and thus all of our choices, but that seems to negate free will. (I ask because I\u2019m trying to find the answer for myself, and the best I can come up with is \u201cI don\u2019t understand quantum mechanics- so maybe it\u2019s something to do with that\u201d which is an absolutely awful explanation.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don\u2019t find free will that hard to reconcile with the equation for everything, because foreknowledge isn\u2019t a big constraint if it happens outside of time. \u00a0Let me put it this way, if someone in the future has knowledge of all my actions and thoughts, because they\u2019re looking back at past events<\/em>, I don\u2019t find this threatening. \u00a0And most people don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

I am also non-threatened by someone or something having knowledge of my actions and of my state of mind if that thing is outside of time<\/em>. \u00a0From my timebound point of view, this is similar enough to the person who knows things after<\/em> I do them.<\/p>\n

But if that doesn\u2019t do it for you, I\u2019ve got another out for you. \u00a0It\u2019s not scary to imagine that someone with a lot of data can predict your choices. \u00a0That\u2019s a necessary consequence of continuity of your identity. \u00a0It wouldn\u2019t take very much data to predict that I would have a cheese sandwich for lunch any day in elementary school, because I always chose to bring a cheese sandwich. \u00a0Developing an identity means limiting the scope of things you\u2019re likely to choose. \u00a0My friends can predict my behavior, sometimes better than I can. \u00a0I don\u2019t think my choices are rendered meaningless by that fact.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After reading my post on decidedly undivine First Causes, one commenter had a question about my position on free will. \u00a0I had referenced a quote from Arcadia, If you could stop every atom in its position and direction, and if your mind could comprehend all the actions thus suspended, then if you were really, really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,68],"tags":[71],"class_list":["post-1575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-epistemologyphilosophy","tag-free-will"],"yoast_head":"\nFree Will and Timeless Observers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After reading my post on decidedly undivine First Causes, one commenter had a question about my position on free will. \u00a0I had referenced a quote from\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, 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