PS

As I wrote the last post, The Decider, I struggled to make it read as simple as I saw it. I doubt that I succeeded, so here is what I see, ‘in other words’. The following excerpt from the article ‘The Decider’ is my launch pad. Here I go again…

So brains are programmed to produce behavior that serves those ends—or seek substitutes that stimulate the same neural systems.

Wouldn’t the notion of free will itself be a “substitute that stimulates”? After all, the thoughts we think  “stimulate” our underlying personal needs, whatever they may be. The question then becomes, what neural systems do notions of ‘free will’ stimulate?

I’ve long noticed the central role ‘free will’ plays in social interactions. Important social interactions hinge on a perceived responsibility among group members to meet their obligations to the group. For us, a belief in free will serves perceived responsibility perfectly. Free will gives us a perceived rational upon which we can judge others, placing praise or blame as we see fit. Such ‘minding of each other’s business’ helps the wheels of social interaction turn.

Just imagine how unnatural life would be if we actually ‘judged not others’, ‘threw not stones’, ‘loved our enemies’, and all the rest. Such lofty spiritual ideals actually fly in the face of nature. Humans, like all other creature in nature, do throw stones, judge others, and hate their enemies. And the notion of free will give us the rational for doing so! If I think you have free will, then I can blame you for not doing the ‘right thing’ and I will feel fully justified in hating you for not measuring up to the currently accepted standards of good, bad, beautiful and ugly and so on. If, on the other hand, I realize you have no free will, then I have to bite my tongue; obviously, you can’t help being who you are. And, neither can I for that matter. Alas, I expect we can never fully accept such impartiality. Like all social animals, we need to pass judgment, praising or blaming, the other fellow. Such favoritism is the social glue that binds.

On a personal note: Although I’m still driven emotionally to judge others, any after effects I feel die quickly now that the notion of free will is not around to keep fanning the flames of praise and blame. Come to think of it, Christ must have been speaking to the nonsense of ‘free will’ when dying on the cross he said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”