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Recently I have been plagued with fantasies of older women aka "cougars." I have chated with a few online, and have intended to meet a few. I have even hit on my aunt via text message!! Why do you think I have such an obssession? I am trying to find out the reasons, and trying to stop...

Yes, This is true.

Miracles must be proven, not seen by some or talked about by others. Prove it! IFFFF? That really happened??? I will even give you the benefit of the doubt. Lets say it did happen, how can you prove that it was supernatural? More than likely what would happen is that we would find that there...

So than what caused you to choose chocolate over vanilla, Dr. Pepper over Pepsi? Your "will" is the result of genetics and evironment, the thing you call "I" "me" "self" is the net result of the laws of nature. You make choices that are in line with your "will," but you have no choice in what...

[/SIZE][/FONT] Knowledge is limited. There are many definitions. All of that which you refer to as "who I am," is determined by prior causes. Who you are right now is the result of your genetics and environmental stimili. Your next choice will come from your genetics and your...

The thalmus and parietal cortex are controlled by cause and effect (i.e. deterministic processes). They are the result of our genetics and external stimuli, thus we have a will, but that will is not free. Unless you are defining free will the way a compatibilist defines it, but even...

You can choose differently from a prior choice, but that would only be because of external or internal stimuli, experiences, and environment. Every choice you make is dependant upon your genetic and environmental conditions. Also, what is it that makes up this "I" or "me" that you refer to...

I know. That is why it does not "sound kinda silly," as you said in your previous post.

[/SIZE] If your brain does not send signals to your legs to move here or there, then what does? 　

Sure we can choose to not jump or to jump, but that choice is dependant on our genetics and our environment. Whatever our genes or our environment lead us to do, that is what we do. Take a suicidal person; they are that way because of either a genetic predisposition to severe depression or...

[/SIZE] Are we aware of ourselves and our surroundings; or are we simply programmed to react to our surroundings? I would say that physics,chemistry and evolutionary biology tell us that we are a product of physics, chemistry and biology. In other words we are essentially programmed. I...

What we as a species learned and experienced before you or I existed is encoded and programed in our genes, and we are continuously being programmed by our environment. So I can compare us to computers. Computers can learn and reprogram itself, it is called machine learning I am sure you have...

Thats kinda the point. We are essentially programmed by our genetics and our environmental experiences. If not genetics or environment, then what would be causing a decision to be made? As for consciousness, we do not even know what that is, and we have so many different definitions of...

I am watching it now, so I will comment later.

Here is part 2 of 6 of the debate. Part 1 is just the introduction of the two speakers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHHTYbusTmw

The triangle could be a fractal Sierpinski style. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLxQOTJGt8c&feature=related

I have never read his books, but I have seen some of his lectures and debates on Youtube. He has some really good arguments.:thumbsup:

Free will as defined by the compatibilist is an emergent property, but emergent properties are still determinant, just as the compatibilist admits with regards to free will. Unless you take the stand of "strong emergence?" However, strong emergence leads to the idea of irreducibility, which...

I would agree that it could be along the lines of compatibilism. However, (as far as I know) we do not know whether "deterministic events and their outcomes have an affect on the probability distributions of random events." (If I am wrong on this please correct me.) In that case the best we...

You still have a problem. Lets say you have a combination of random and deterministic events take place in the brain. One event will be random the next deterministic the next random the next deterministic and so on. Each event is either random or deterministic, both of which do not give you free...