CAE_Jones, I agree that the concept of free will is flawed, and I think that is due in part because the people who support free will probably don't look at it rationally. A lot of things happen in our lives that we absolutely have no control over, and we react to those events in a way that is often in our own best interests. Not always, but usually there really is only one choice or outcome that makes any logical and rational sense.
For example, a number of years ago I lost my sight. Obviously it was against my will, I had no control over it, but in theory I had a choice how to react to my blindness. I could have killed myself, but in most human beings the instinct to survive is greater than the desire to kill oneself. I could have decided to be depressed, felt miserable for myself, but the state of self-pitty is not one a rational thinking human being would entertain for any length of time. The only option I had was to accept what had happened and move on. Therefore I didn't really have free will in either the problem or the choice I made, because the alternatives to accepting my blindness were far worse than learning to live with it.
In the religious context I think free will is often an excuse to get God off the hook for questions that the religious texts do not answer without a lot of beating around the bush. The people who believe in free will often claim we have free will even when it clearly is not the case. If someone is raised to be Hindu, never is taught to believe in the Christian God, how can he or she be punished for breaking the first commandment when they don't know they are breaking it? More over, if Jesus is the one and only way to salvation then how are people who never heard of Jesus or was not raised to believe in that doctrine suppose to be saved?
themadviolinist, you are absolutely right. It does seem irrational to believe in supernatural and apparently invisible beings simply because its not based on empirical proof that science and reason require when attempting to derive or discover truth. At least not empirical truth that is consistent for every person who tries to access the truth in that way. that's why there are two other modes humans attempt to discover truth.
The first is myth. By myth I mean a story that is not true, but the moral of the story is intended to hold some moral truth. The parables in the bible fit this description, because when Jesus tells his followers about the Good Samaritan, the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, the Good Sower, etc the stories themselves aren't meant to be taken literally but the moral of the story is meant to be taken as truth.
Next, we have religion. Here we have stories that claim to be true, are based on someone's personal experience rather than empirical evidence. The writings of St. Paul fall into this category because he claims to have seen Jesus on the road to Damascus, was blinded, and later healed after he converted to Christianity. Its not something we can prove or disprove in any scientific way, and we either believe or don't believe his story.
Finally, we have reason. Its both the best and worst method for us because it has had so much success over the last three centuries or so in terms of advancing science and technology, but because religion and myth often come to truth from a totally different approach science tends to ignore anything that can not be tested with consistent results.
Fact is all three ways of looking at the world have strengths and weaknesses, and all we can do is attempt to be open minded and use a combination of these three ways to get an idea of what is or is not true. Even though I consider myself a rational person I also have experienced things in my life that science does not yet acknowledge as fact. Most people would call me crazy if I were to tell them some of the weird things that has happened in my life that defy scientific explanation.
brad, I certainly do not think you are crazy. As I just mentioned before I have had my share of personal experiences that defy any kind of logical or scientific basis. Telling people about it makes people think I'm crazy. Yet, I experienced it all the same.
As for qi one of the things I did in college is I took a few classes on comparitive studies. One of the religions we studied at length is Daoism or Taoism depending on which translation you read. The thing is we studied qi at some length and I actually did feel some kind of force or energy and was able to do some things with it. I didn't study it well enough to manipulate objects with my qi, but there is definitely something to it.
Today there is a group of people who run an organization called Quantum Touch which claims to be able to heal people using their force or qi, and to remove pain etc. In talking to the people who do the Quantum Touch demos etc they agreed that its basically the same thing that various religious groups have been doing all along, that it is what the Chinese call qi, and their aspect is to try and put a more scientific spin on it. I don't think these people are nuts, and my view of qi is simply that its something science hasn't accepted yet.
As for the voice you heard that's hard to say for any certainty. I will say I do believe you as I've had some pretty unusual experiences myself, and not all of them good. My wife and I have been interested in doing ghost walks, have entered haunted houses, etc and have actually encountered spirits. People would say I am nuts, but I have personal experience with beings that science says should not and does not exist.
For example, a few blocks away from where I live there is an old Victorian house. It is said to be the most haunted place in Millersburg. I've been in there at times and have not felt or experienced anything unusual. However, a year ago I was in there and my wife and I encountered two different spirits on the same night.
We walked into the master bedroom and I felt an instant chill, and my wife claims she saw a spirit of an old woman laying on the bed. When I reached towards the spirit my hand became ice cold and she vanished. The second she did all the heat flooded back into the room as though someone turned the heat back on.
In another case we were walking through a room and my wife was looking in a large floor to ceiling mirror when she saw an old man standing behind her. When she turned around there was nothing there. However, as with the old woman I felt like I was being watched and the air was colder than the rest of the room.
Another time we took a digital recorder with us to a haunted place, and were planning to record any unusual sounds or voices that perhaps we couldn't hear. In one case my wife asks if there is anyone there, any spirits that want to say something, we got a voice on the recording that clearly stated "get out!"
The point of this rambling is if you heard a voice it doesn't mean you imagined it. My wife and I have had enough encounters with ghosts, for lack of a better term, to dismiss that sort of thing out of hand. As with qi I think spirits, ghosts, etc are something scientists don't acknowledge simply because you can not get consistent results through testing, and even if they can its easier to doubt it than to accept something is real.
Sincerely,
Thomas Ward
USA Games Interactive
http://www.usagamesinteractive.com
