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I am religious and believe in free will

71 (27.7%)

I am religious and do not believe in free will

10 (3.9%)

I am not religious and believe in free will

114 (44.5%)

I am not religious and do not believe in free will

61 (23.8%)

Total Members Voted: 251

[TD1]

And Cryxis/Arx (though to a lesser degree) being generally theistic

[Angle]

Fight! Fight! Fight!

[That Wolf]

Mostly just more weird mushroom nonsense and Dwarfy being generally anti-theistic.

I understand because of social norms one could easily find my easily gained insights as weird or abhorrent.
Infact they are a normal form of spiritual growth (in controlled settings) and have been seen in many veiws as a shortcut to what some meditative practices take years to achive with the same results.
This being said, most of my "weird mushroom nonsense" is mainly in the beggining of my thread introduction.
In the latter I have introduced other works not of my own but hold similar veiws.
Im not a drug addict taking them every month ritualisticly to meditate upon.
I just meditate normaly and love the life around me.
I often strike out at western religions because they are founded on mythology and ancient barbaric practices, nor does it have any way in a guide to actualy contemplate your universe and mind, infact it harms that kind of development by stating you have a soul and that it is always in judgement.
It brings us back to helpless days of childhood where you listen to the parent and their rule or be punished, and being in a child like state is not necessarily good for proper spiritual development. One needs to be stable and not prone to fantasy. I also beleive that not only being emotionally developed but also physically and mentally, including knowledge of the sciences.
In this way it can be hard to turn ones knowledge away, only to accept it as truth or close to.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

im trying

[TD1]

Whereas drugs are merely life denying.

[Bohandas]

Whereas drugs are merely life denying.

What is that even supposed to mean?

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

I think I'm done coming to this thread
is there any way to not have a thread pop up in the updated threads thing?

[Frumple]

Nope. Once you post in a thread, it's there forever. Unless the thread gets deleted or permanently locked, anyway.

[Rolan7]

There are drugs which make you more alert and aware of the real world...
But I don't think those are the drugs That Wolf is talking about.  Recreational drugs deny reality by replacing it with imagination, or dulling the pain.  Not that either of those things are necessarily bad, but I'm very skeptical of spirituality which requires mushrooms or LSD.

[TD1]

Whereas drugs are merely life denying.

What is that even supposed to mean?

Was it Nietzsche that said religion is life denying? Either way, it means the drugs cause focus on the drugs and their "meanings" rather than reality.

[Bohandas]

I think I'm done coming to this thread
is there any way to not have a thread pop up in the updated threads thing?

Post divisive comments until it gets locked

[Ghills]

Well then what's the point of even arguing about it? I mean aside from as a game. What actual effect does a concept of free-will beyond the mere idea of choice have?

I'm not really sure what free will is supposed to be anymore. The most common way people explain it is "Well you know I'm totally free to quit my job right now and become a bank robber" or some other irrational harmful thing that they're not actually going to do. So I guess free will is the ability to act irrationally and unpredictably?

LDS theology holds that the importance of agency is so we can freely determine whether or not we want to be like God. The point of existence is character growth and choosing the kind of person we want to be. Some people are going to choose to focus on immediate gratification or otherwise not meet Heavenly Father's standards, just like some people choose to prepare badly for tests or don't pay attention to their work.  We try to support people in making better choices, but not everyone is going to.

Agency could be boiled down to the ability to choose between rational and irrational. We think the moral choice is always the rational choice in the long-term, although it mightn't be apparent while making the decision. That's why we have commandments, scriptures and revelation - they're Heavenly Father's cheatsheet on how to make rational and happy choices while we aren't living with Him.

[Orange Wizard]

I think I'm done coming to this thread
is there any way to not have a thread pop up in the updated threads thing?

Post divisive comments without any supporting evidence and insult everyone who disagrees until it gets locked

[UXLZ]

So, what's been going on in the thread recently OW? I haven't really been paying any attention since stuff was taking a boring turn the last time I was here.

[TheDarkStar]

I asked atheists what they think about free will. I guess I could open the question up to everyone to encourage discussion since the conversation has kind of stagnated.

So, what does everyone think about free will?

[Criptfeind]

Although I'm still a atheist, since I missed the debate the first time around I'll throw my two cents in. I don't believe in free will as in I think there is some magical process independent from reality that goes into us making decisions. I think that technically if you had full knowledge of a person/their environment you could accurately predict what they were going to do.

In that sense I don't think we have free will.

On the other hand it doesn't really matter.