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Fred: A “baby particularly ugly and in desperate need of a change of diapers†. . . my, my, how witty. But one can see how MM “feels compelled by her emotions,†to believe whatever it is that she happens to believe, since, as she has previously declared, she believes whatever it is she believes b/c that is what makes MM herself “feel good,†and, as she explains in her so-called “axiom,†MM “uses her brains to justify it.â€
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It must seem brilliant to you that you've come up with the clever tactic of using my description of how we make behavior decisions - to ridicle basically anything I say.
You seem to have missed that I also said that what makes us different are the things that make us feel good. Re-read that last sentence because I think therein lies the answer to a lot of perplexing puzzles of human behavior - and the motivation for many of the posts in this forum.
In this case - as I previously stated - I have no dog in this
free-will fight. At least, not at the level where Tom and Alex are providing their discussion. I am generally disinclined toward any supernatural explanations - of anything. Your description of free-will smells suspiciously like loaded nappies in that regard - even though you've been pretty cagey about making statements that have enough substance to pin you down.
You seem to have a lot to say about the intellectual honesty of those who disagree with you. Intellectual honesty means laying out your argument in all its detail and glory for others to critique - not hiding behind psudo-scientific terms and obfuscations. Are you willing to defend your notion of free-will in that intellectually honest way?
I'll have respect for any non-supernatural description of
free-will that someone proposes. In this case though, I'm simply appreciative of those who have the ability to think deeply about complex things like this and approach them through reason and not superstition. Both Tom and Alex qualify in that regard - and until I can fully grasp their arguments I'll hold off on taking a side.
What I'm saying is that regardless of the topic, arguments to
reason make me feel good - even if they are not perfect (who's reason is). But, I appreciate those who make that attempt. Also, that arguments to
superstition trigger my skepticism. That's my primary ideological bias here. I'll freely admit to being swayed by those emotions.
We all make behavior decisions according to how
our predictions of the result of that behavior will make us feel. When I contemplate accepting an argument based on the best logic, and not superstition, I feel good. I'm thankful that my mind developed in that way - even if I can't logically follow every well-stated scientific argument to its conclusion.
Margaret