Free Will

A philosophy professor I had a few years ago said, "Philosophy is a wonderful handmaiden, but a terrible taskmaster." Every time I read a book that deals with some facet of philosophy, I think of this quote. Mostly because philosophy gives me tired head. It circles around and around and asks different questions and pushes the boundaries of what I have always considered truth and makes me wonder if they are just snotty, know-it-alls or if I'm mentally handicapped in some way and just can't see it. With that said, about twice or thrice a year I pick up a book on philosophy and spend a time in intellectual flagellation. See, I'm even beginning to sound like them.

But a couple of days ago I started reading Free Will by Sam Harris. To sum up his view of free will, he believes it is a delusion we created to help us cope with our lack of control on the world around us. There, now you don't have to read the book. But I started it because most of the sections in the old book that give me greatest amount of angst is the collision between Divine providence and (you guessed it) Free Will. And you have to understand I have read a lot of material about all the major constructs of this argument from Determinism, Libertarianism, Compatibilism, Openness, Molinism and the list goes on. I even have a working knowledge of some of them.

So why put myself through this? There is only one reason. It makes me "think" better. It makes me show my answers. Philosophy makes us run through all the thought strings until they either circle back on themselves or they run out and aren't valid. I believe the lack of critical thought is one of the greatest weaknesses in the Christian world-view. We accept without question the doctrine and, consequently, look foolish to the rest of the world. I think it was Stalin who claimed that Christianity was the opiate of the masses. When we don't think critically, we illustrate his point.

So I will finish the book. I don't know if I chose to read it, or as the author claims it was my destiny, manufactured by my psycho-neurons and past experiences. Maybe my next post will be on the couple I saw at the Detroit airport yesterday where he was 6'4" and she was 4'11". Incongruity is all around us.

Godspeed, I still describe myself as a "functional skeptic" maybe it has to do with my reading material.
Don