1. If there's no free will, then one can't choose one's beliefs.
2. If one can't choose one's beliefs, then one has no control over what they believe.
3. One who has no control over what they believe cannot evaluate evidence, for to evaluate evidence is to choose to either believe (or not believe) in the veracity of the evidence.
4. People who cannot evaluate evidence cannot know if their beliefs reflect reality.
5. People who cannot know if their beliefs reflect reality are clueless.
6. Therefore, if there's no free will, we're all clueless. We just have to hope that what we believe corresponds to reality. In other words, it's pointless for a materialist to debate a theist, since neither has any control over what they believe- all both sides can simply do is hope that they're beliefs are right.
It may be that even without free will, our beliefs match a materialistic reality, because of evolutionary forces (e.g., incorrect beliefs about reality are more likely to be lethal beliefs), but our history is a history of wrong beliefs, from pantheism to Aristotelian physics, to geocentrism, to miasmic vapors, etc.
I don't see how a theory of knowledge works without the ability to evaluate evidence, which requires some kind of free will.
2. If one can't choose one's beliefs, then one has no control over what they believe.
3. One who has no control over what they believe cannot evaluate evidence, for to evaluate evidence is to choose to either believe (or not believe) in the veracity of the evidence.
4. People who cannot evaluate evidence cannot know if their beliefs reflect reality.
5. People who cannot know if their beliefs reflect reality are clueless.
6. Therefore, if there's no free will, we're all clueless. We just have to hope that what we believe corresponds to reality. In other words, it's pointless for a materialist to debate a theist, since neither has any control over what they believe- all both sides can simply do is hope that they're beliefs are right.
It may be that even without free will, our beliefs match a materialistic reality, because of evolutionary forces (e.g., incorrect beliefs about reality are more likely to be lethal beliefs), but our history is a history of wrong beliefs, from pantheism to Aristotelian physics, to geocentrism, to miasmic vapors, etc.
I don't see how a theory of knowledge works without the ability to evaluate evidence, which requires some kind of free will.
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1Izv1E5
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