Predeterminism Vs Libertarianism
While the religious community preaches its own view of free will, science sees the matter very differently. The scientific community has two main ideas concerning free will. The first of these ideas is libertarianism, which states that people are free to act on their own accord without the determinism of human nature and from any predeterminism coming from a spiritual entity, including a god. The second and more popular opinion is that of hard determinism. Hard determinism insists that no person is morally responsible for their actions because everything has a cause or causes that determine what it is. Most people believe that they are making the choices they make freely. Science says that for a person to have free choice in a decision, they must have options to choose from.
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This is the argument libertarian free will makes.
The same people who believe that they are freely making choices also believe that the world has come to the point it is at because of past events. The world is a giant web of causes and effects. Hard determinists argue that because everything has a cause, no decision is made freely. Instead, every choice and action ever made is the result of a preceding event or events that led to the action. Advocates of libertarian free will explain this by noting the difference between the events of the world from events in the mind, or thoughts. Events that occur in the world are deterministic, with everything having a cause and effect. Libertarian free will draws the line at the human mind. It says that the mind makes its own decisions and create an entirely new set of causes in the physical world. This debate begins to focus on whether or not the human mind is capable of making its own decisions, something to which new technology and science are giving new insight. For the past 50 years or so, neuroscience has come to the conclusion that the brain does not make its own decisions, but uses past events and experiences to determine which action is
best. Neuroscientists have shown that even before a person begins to think about a choice, their brain is already hard at work making the decision. For a brain to be thinking without a person first being consciously aware of itself doing the thinking, free will cannot exist. Professor Peter Tse argues that it is not the choice that is free, but the criteria for making that choice must be done freely. A person sets criteria freely to choose a possible action, and the brain makes the best choice. By this means, humans have free will.
This is the argument libertarian free will makes.
The same people who believe that they are freely making choices also believe that the world has come to the point it is at because of past events. The world is a giant web of causes and effects. Hard determinists argue that because everything has a cause, no decision is made freely. Instead, every choice and action ever made is the result of a preceding event or events that led to the action. Advocates of libertarian free will explain this by noting the difference between the events of the world from events in the mind, or thoughts. Events that occur in the world are deterministic, with everything having a cause and effect. Libertarian free will draws the line at the human mind. It says that the mind makes its own decisions and create an entirely new set of causes in the physical world. This debate begins to focus on whether or not the human mind is capable of making its own decisions, something to which new technology and science are giving new insight. For the past 50 years or so, neuroscience has come to the conclusion that the brain does not make its own decisions, but uses past events and experiences to determine which action is
best. Neuroscientists have shown that even before a person begins to think about a choice, their brain is already hard at work making the decision. For a brain to be thinking without a person first being consciously aware of itself doing the thinking, free will cannot exist. Professor Peter Tse argues that it is not the choice that is free, but the criteria for making that choice must be done freely. A person sets criteria freely to choose a possible action, and the brain makes the best choice. By this means, humans have free will.