God forbade...must reading!

Elbow Room



   The idea of fate is older than philosophy itself. Since the dawn of the discipline philosophers have been trying to show what is wrong with the idea that our fates are sealed before we are born.



  The Stoics urged a certain freedom found not in struggling against the inevitable, but adjusting desires downward to meet one's circumstances. The Stoics explained their 'apathetic' doctrine we are all assigned a role to play in the tragedy of life, there is nothing more for us to do but say our prescribed lines as best we can, there is no room to ad-lib.



  Why are we afraid of not having free will? Its analagous to being in prison, being hypnotized, paralyzed or being a puppet.



  In The Cosmic Child Whose Dolls We Are, Nozick writes, "Without free will we seem diminished, merely the plaything of external forces. How undignified to be a mere plaything, a toy".



  In the idea of the disappearing self we are looking at a world that seems to be cleverly designed, but then deserted by its designer. The birds and bees, ants and fish are just going through the motions. They don't understand or appreciate what they are up to and no one, who can, can be found in the neighborhood.



  In body 'english' we use a signature spin that's usually futile, sometimes comical and other times pathetic, and often irresistible. What science threatens to show us, all our striving is so much body english. Wouldn't it be sad if all our mental gymnastics, deliberations, strivings, resolutions and struggles were just so much body english?



  Consider the idea of follow-through, the only way to achieve the goal is to look ahead and fix a more distant goal. It could make all the difference. Sometimes the only way to get what you really want, is to try to do something else.





Elbow Room- Daniel Dennett