Free Will vs. Determinism

I don't understand determinists. Kind of sickening that it's winning. 

Determinism is way more fun to argue, but I believe in free will because of my religious beliefs.  I believe my consciousness is what gives me free will and that it not something which can be physically nailed down with science (at least yet).

Guys, the math already has identified the answer to this with the advent of chaos theory, and it can actually be broken down into pretty understandable sense.

Being a pretty big science guy, I go with determinism. Everything can be broken down into atoms, which can be broken down to quarks and are now believed to be broken down to strings. These strings vibrate in some manner which then is reflected in the quarks, then atoms-> molecules-> neurons. If neurons firing produces what we think then there isn't anything we can do. Quantum mechanics determines what we do. There isn't any free will.

I believe in free will. Determinism makes a lot of sense, but I somehow just think I can freely choose something. I think the philosophy of determinism is just trying to nail something into your head when all your past experience and everything you've known about life screams the opposite.

I remember Greg's thread (which was unfortunately short-lived), and I will repeat here what I wrote there. I am what you would call a 'soft determinist' - I believe you can achieve a lot through your will, but this does not mean that there won't be factors out of your control that will influence your life in a way you can't control (like having a serious accident through no fault of your own, or getting seriously ill). As I said in that thread, I see the advocates of 'free will above everything' as suffering from some sort of God complex, as I call it. Unfortunately, as we see every day, we are not God, and we would do well to remember how vulnerable we can be.

darkshade wrote: i thought this was a Rush poll.............

Vompatti wrote: I voted for determinism. I just couldn't help it.

I don't know how determinists can go through life. At least the nihilist has control over his life even if it's ultimately pointless.

LinusW wrote: Is it really impossible for the two to co-exist? Nature versus nurture.

Linus, that's the one thing that frustrated me most that night.  Yes, both of the smart guys on each side said you absolutely could not have both.....you had to choose a side or you were full of sh*t.  I can't remember *why* they were so adamant about that, but they were....on both sides of the debate.  And they did have fancy sounding explanations, I just don't remember....it was a long time ago.  You were probably a toddler then!