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What's one lesson you find super compelling?
If you could put a megaphone to the ears of the world for just 5 mintues, what's the one lesson you would teach. It doesn't have to be serious, but it can be. It doesn't have to be about math, science, literature, or history, but it can be. It just needs to capture the minds of your audience.
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Buga Berkovic
Ethan Bull
Maybe, assumption would have been a better choice of words. Due to our belief in free will we assume everyone can choose how they act or react to circumstance. Our Western religions, and thus our system of jurisprudence, are all built on on this assumption. Because we believe in free will, we punish those who fail to act in a socially acceptable manner.
Taking that assumption a little further we tend to view others in light of the choices we think we have made. We chose to be hard working and successful, so logically those who are not hard working and successful are that way because they did not choose to be.
Once we give up this illusion, we will find it far easier to understand and forgive ourselves and each other. Giving up this illusion will replace punishment with empathy and compassion.
DW Nelson
Everyone can choose how they react.
Adriaan Braam 20+
Mary M. 50+
Adriaan!!!! Hi!!!!
Mwenjew Wewngwa
Braam Braam Braam !
Ethan Bull
OR to paraphrase Carl Sagan, we are that part of the universe that looks out on itself.
And one more from Mr. Sagan:
"Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred."
I like to think I'm here to share this experience, to be there with others to ask, or respond to, the question, "Did you see that?"
"Yes, that is beautiful."
Adriaan Braam 20+
Ethan Bull
Do you honestly think there is any such thing as a mentally healthy Human? Let me supply one obvious example of proof that we are all batshit crazy, belief in gods and any other supernatural or metaphysical beliefs. The DSM out of necessity includes an exemption for religious beliefs, otherwise any of these beliefs would qualify one as delusional.
Other than that obvious problem with your comment, it fails to make any sense at all. No matter how you couch your jingoistic premise, it is false.
I really can't say anything more, you have your opinion, based only on your own subjective experience and anecdote, all of which is meaningless in the face of recent fMRI experiments.
Until you are ready to accept we are individually incapable of understanding our own experiences you will continue to believe you are actively controlling your own life.
Ethan Bull
That statement is not only incorrect, but is little more than the sort of stuff people post on FB when they are feeling down.
Once we include everyone, we have created a false statement. Not everyone can control how they react. In fact, neuroscience is rapidly approaching an understanding of how our brains work that is leading to the conclusion that none of us control how we react to anything.
Having experienced incredible loss in my own life, I can attest that we can't control how we react. Even those times when you think you are choosing, you are merely doing what you do. Our freedom of choice is limited to the choices available, and those choices, I'm not conceding any point, are limited by our time and place of birth, our parents, the structure of our brains, epigenetics, and the circumstances of our lives.
Adriaan Braam 20+
Everyone regarded as mentally healthy, and in freedom to do as they please, can choose how to react to what happens to them. How is that?
Do you see our human physical brain as the one and only thing that is doing the reacting and responding?
If so, then what do you think is stopping the change? The neurons? the chemicals? the electrical connections?
What more do you think people have that actually can choose to react, by choosing between two or more options?
Adriaan Braam 20+
"Until you are ready to accept we are individually incapable of understanding our own experiences you will continue to believe you are actively controlling your own life."
What do you base that on?? The moment YOU DECIDE to go out the door e.g. you are free to decide what to buy and where to buy it. You may even decide to flip a coin :) When you are in your car (if you decide to drive) you can let others into you lane or you can decide to speed up and not let them in. When you arrive at the store you decide where to park, which door to go in. You decide whether you are, and who, you are going to ask where to find what you want to buy. You decide whether you are going to ask it nicely or snarling.
I can go on and on and on.
I agree with you 95% when you say:
"Our freedom of choice is limited to the choices available, and those choices, I'm not conceding any point, are limited by our time and place of birth, our parents, the structure of our brains, epigenetics, and the circumstances of our lives."
There is only one word I would change and that is the second "limited"
In my mind that word should be "influenced" not 'limited.'
We can reflect and contemplate on our life, our actions and judge ourself and others and change ourself for the better or for worse. That's part of the reason there is not a single human being the same as another.
I am not saying you have to accept what I write, but you could change your mind :) Have you decided to believe and go into astrology? Why do psychics advertise about readings?? do we have a choice? :)
Derek Young 30+
Thanks for your input, but I'm not sure your message is clear enough. For instance, what or who are you refering to by "Free will" and what is free will?
Your example about the poor and the rich, what is the correct logic you are describing in correlation to Free will?
Mary M. 50+
And until such time as we come to understand this so called "free will"........the freedom to choose, which is born from our thinking abilities (the brain)............we really won't know why we are in the condition that we are in.
This of course is my interpretation.........Maybe he'll come in a little while and make me wish I'd kept my mouth quiet...LOL
His first statement made me think of what we use to say to each other as kids when we wanted to say NO...........instead of answering any question NO........we would say..........I would if I could, but I can't, so I won't.............
The world, and our lives, are the way they are because we have chosen to have it that way......our brains have not allowed us to do anything else with the earth or our lives for them to be in a different condition. This also is what I take away from his comment.
Derek Young 30+
Ethan Bull
The next point is once we relinquish the illusion of free will how does this change how we view ourselves and each other.
"Things are the way they are, because that's the only way they could be, if things could have been, they would be."
Believing this statement true, that things are the way they are because this is the only way they could be, is a very liberating experience. I would say for an atheist this is similar to let go let god sort of thing.
We must accept that we did in fact do our best at that point in time, regardless of how we view our past actions. Whether it was right or wrong at the time, meaning did our actions produce a net positive or negative effect, is an entirely different question. By accepting our limitations we will find it easier forgive ourselves and others.
Jorgen Klaveness
Ethan Bull
Els Weerstra
I don't know about this..I always feel that you shouldn't take everything for granted. The fact things are the way they are, doesn't mean that this is the way they 'should' be. Aren't we constantly seeking for development which also implies change?
Ethan Bull
The word -should- is neither used nor implied. All this means is that things are they way there are, because everything that preceded the present condition could not have led to any other result.
Where we find ourselves at each event is at the leading edge of a 13.7 billion year odyssey. Or, more precisely, we are always at the point where the cone shaped casual boundaries of the past and future meet. When our lives are viewed from this perspective, free will is seen as nothing more than a simple human illusion. One of many illusions born in ignorance, and like so many ancient unfounded ideas destined to be dispelled by science.