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From: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Redefining free will?
Message-ID: <126@spar.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 10-Mar-85 13:57:15 EST
Article-I.D.: spar.126
Posted: Sun Mar 10 13:57:15 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 12-Mar-85 09:02:14 EST
References: <627@pyuxd.UUCP> <159@frog.UUCP>
Reply-To: ellis@spar.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Organization: Schlumberger Palo Alto Research, CA
Lines: 30

>To argue that there might be something outside of cause and effect
>that is somehow related to our conciousness is so far from the
>common understanding of the word "free" that the expression "free
>will" as it is commonly interpreted in philosophy should be replaced
>with something suitable to what is being discussed.

    Apparently, thinking in strictly causal terms has become so ingrained to
    western minds that we have forgotten how to perceive things any other
    kind of way.

    Forgive me if I appear to be completely in the ozone, but the
    overwhelming sentiment in a vast quantity of metaphysical writings seems
    to be that one's awareness is directly proportional to one's freedom
    from the realm of cause and effect.

    A clear depiction of the vehicle by which such pure awareness may be
    attained can be found in Revelations, where the angel announces:

	        "And there shall be time no longer"

    ...thereby destroying the very fabric that links causes to effects.

    The scientific viewpoint can barely parse such utterances, naturally
    enough. Science, after all, is SUPPOSED to explain everything in terms
    of cause and effect.

-michael

    LightFlash put a question to Nothing's There
    `Are you something, sir? Or isn't anything there?'