Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia; Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.
Post 122. December 20, 2021 continued . . .
Unscripted Free Will
Does Unpredictability Set Us Free?
Having determined that Determinism is unavoidable, Carter began to look for an escape clause. And his Christian beliefs provided the perfect alibi. Perhaps the original Determiner had built-in allowances for moral agents to make positive choices that would avoid the inevitable negative effects of random evolution. Ironically, he had found the Bible God5 dubious for several reasons. So, he set about to “find a believable God”. His search was focused mainly on philosophical arguments in favor of a reasonable First Cause. Such rationales are typically labeled Theodicy6: to vindicate God from responsibility for the Evils & imperfections of creation. Unfortunately, he didn’t find those elaborate excuses convincing.
Therefore, he next turned to Science to find a way around the dilemma of Determinism. Yet, the Materialistic worldview of modern Physics allows no gaps in causation for local changes to the universal logic of causation. Psychology, though might find a loophole in Mind. Or Quantum indeterminism could provide a reason for believing in the power of the Observer to alter the course of Causation. However, he wondered if we were “mistaking unpredictability for freedom”7. He even pondered the opinions of three respected physics teachers, that “freewill is so self-evident . . . it needs no logical support or proof”. But the same logical frame-of-mind that caused him to doubt his own religion, also made Intuition itself dubious.
Finding the Science angle to be unfavorable to exceptions to Determinism, Carter looked for other ways to approach the question of freedom. Obviously, most humans, slaves excepted, have always acted as-if they are masters of their own destinies, even when their best-laid plans went awry. So, he looked into the possibility that Self-awareness8 itself might indicate that humans are an exception to the rule of external causes. But recent findings that Consciousness seems to be an afterthought — a footnote to decisions made by the gene-dominated brain — seemed to block that avenue of escape. Then one more foray into the counter-intuitive alternative reality of Quantum theory, found a tiny glimmer of freedom in the non-local features of Entanglement.9 He hoped the “spooky action at a distance” might break the chain of causation, because “entangled particles transcend space & time”. Yet, he still couldn’t see how ghostly particles of matter could add-up to human freedom from the constraints of causation.
Consequently, finding all his escape routes blocked, he was resigned to adjust his free-thinking attitude to one of humble acceptance, not exactly to Destiny, but to Inevitability. Even so, he continued to ask what-if questions. His proposed “theology for skeptics of the supernatural”— equivalent to Secular Humanism — seemed to be open to other possibilities. He also briefly toyed with the notion of Panpsychism : “The universe is one all-inclusive thing, and we are part of it – the sentient, feeling part – the only part that knows, that is aware that it exists. We are its consciousness”. And he was impressed by a professor’s answer to “where is God?”. His response was ironically similar to some mystical notions : “God is within you”. And that could be construed as Pantheism (all is god) or even PanEnDeism (all is within god). So maybe his intuitive conviction has withstood all those self-imposed challenges.
Blog Post 122 continued . . .
5. Bible God : The monotheistic deity of Abrahamic religions. The tribal Hebrew deity (Elohim) was a Pantheon (god family). For the nation of Israel, Yahweh was redefined as the official deity & father of the Jews. But after the return from Babylon, God was viewed as the universal deity for all people. Next, the Christians added a Son-of-god, and an abstract Holy Spirit to the god family. Some even included a Mother-of-god, Then the Muslims rejected that poly-theistic trend, and revived the austere notion of a unitary universal deity, with no personal features. So, the Bible-god is an evolving model to suit changing religious needs. But always assumed to be scrupulously good, fair & just in dealings with humans.
6. Theodicy : Literally, “God Justice”. Theodicy means vindication of God. It is to answer the question of why a good God permits the manifestation of evil, thus resolving the issue of the problem of evil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodicy
7. Unpredictability : Randomness roams free in the sense of being non-directional and acausal. But that lack of pattern is not compatible with the notion of human Will as a cause in itself. Some events on the quantum scale of reality seem to be acausal and spontaneous in that their timing and direction are unpredictable. But they don’t seem to be willful. We assume they have no choice in their fate.
8. Self-Awareness : Since humans are conscious of their own behavior, and seem to freely choose each step in their path through life. We intuitively feel that we are Free Agents, unlike the hap-hazard jumps of oblivious sub-atomic particles. But
9. Entanglement : Some philosophers interpret the mutual properties of un-connected particles as a sign of their partaking in a universal holistic system. If so, the system itself is a higher level of causation above space-time..
The Single Simple Question That challenges All Convictions
Peter Carter MD
Primary Care Physician
“Connecting the conundrums of God and Immortality, Free Will, the Strange Reality of Quantum Physics, and Finding Purpose in Existence”.
So, why 4.9 instead of 5.0? Carter comes very close to panentheism, but does not mention it. He also comes close to idealism, the idea that all is really Mind (note the capital "M"), and everything else is a manifestation of this Mind. But he does not mention any of the contemporary writers on the subject such as Bernardo Kastrup.
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