From: pharvey@quack.sac.ca.us (Paul Harvey)
Subject: Re: Straight talk on free will. Only for the brave.
Organization: The Duck Pond public unix: +1 408 249 9630, log in as 'guest'.
Date: 10 Jan 1993 02:08:56 UTC

In article <1993Jan9.153904.10032@ac.dal.ca> hartigan@ac.dal.ca writes:
>At the moment, I have about three threads going on this topic, and me
>doesn't like repeating the same arguments over and over.
>So here it is, the Last Word on free will: It doesn't exist! So forget it!
>If you think you have free will, that's your delusion.
>If you want to know why you don't have free will, it's because the "you"
>that you think has free will is an illusory product of a self-referential
>thought trap, like the speaker in "This sentence is false."
>A human being is not an _actor_ but an _event_. 
>Please note that this is not an argument for any kind of materialistic 
>determinism. I am not trying to deny that people make choices. We do. 
>But the "we" that makes choices is an _event_ that is necessarily
>beyond the reach of our choices. 
>In simple terms: _it is impossible to not be spontaneous_. Paul Harvey
>advocates: "Just do it."  Well, it is impossible to _not_ "just do it."
>You just try and not be spontaneous some time!

A'ight. It pains me to have to resort to such measures and I assure you
that this hurts me far more than it can ever hurt you, but it seems you
leave me with no choice and I'm sure you can understand how that
situation just is not tolerable. And so, as further proof of my
possession of free will, my individuation, my uniqueness, my assertion
that I am not a number but a free man, it's time to go transcendent.

BANG!!!    Free will is a metaphor.

The existance or non-existance of a metaphor is a pointless argument,
much like the argument over the existance/non-existance of God, another
metaphor.

And so I say that I have free will and you say that you do not. This
means nothing. Free will is a metaphor, the beauty is in the eye (I) of
the beholder.

Webster's II:
free will: n. [Transl. of LLat. liberum arbitrium] 1. The ability or
discretion to choose freely. 2. The power, attributed esp. to human
beings, of making free choices unconstrained by external circumstances
or necessity.
metaphor: n. [OFr. metaphore < Lat. metaphora < Gk. metapherein, to
transfer: meta, change + pherein, to bear.] A figure of speech in which
a term is transferred from the object it ordinarily designates to an
object it may designate only by implicit comparison or analogy, as in
the phrase *evening of life*.
transcend: v. [ME transcenden < OFr. transcendre < Lat. transcendere :
trans, over + scandere, to climb.] -vt. 1a. To pass beyond (a human
limit) <feelings that transcend understanding> b. To exist above and
independent of (material experience of the universe). 2. To rise above
or across. -vi. To surpass.
transcendent: adj. 1. That surpasses all others of the same kind:
Pre-eminent. 2a. Philos. Transcending the Aristotelian categories. b.
Designating knowledge that is beyond the limits of experience in Kant's
theory of knowledge. 3. Above and independent of the material universe.
-Used of the Deity.

(pawn takes bishop at king four, check)
We set sail at moon set, see you at the cement boat.
Be seeing you.
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc