Comments

  • Predestination and Forgiveness
    Yes. Quantum physics shows that the Universe is not deterministic, and that even if you knew everything about every single particle’s and wave’s position, direction, velocity, and energy level, etc,(which quantum physics has also shown that you can’t know all of those things about a particle or wave at the same time. It’s called the uncertainty principle) that you would not be able to predict the future state of the universe.
  • I don't think there's free will
    I would like to clarify that not all indeterminism is relevant at larger scales, and not everything is indeterminate at the quantum scale, so the combination of indeterminism and determinism allows our brains to make decisions that have a basis in past experiences and decisions, but are not predetermined entirely by the past.
  • Predestination and Forgiveness
    I would like to say that scientific determinism in the sense that you are talking about has been proven invalid by quantum mechanics, which has shown that the universe is indeterministic, and these indeterministic effects on the quantum scale have been shown to affect the nervous system, which means that our choices are not predetermined.
  • I don't think there's free will
    I am not going to directly respond to anyone specifically, because I feel like this is not a direct response to any particular point argued above, but I would like to add a very strong point of evidence that supports the idea that we have free will.

    At the subatomic level (smaller than atoms) particles (and/or waves) have properties that are described by quantum mechanics. In the field of quantum mechanics, the direction and momentum of a particle and/or wave after interacting with another particle(s) and/or wave(s) is not deterministic and is predicted by probabilities that are determined by the interference of the two waves (and their wave function). At the quantum level, interactions between particles and their wave functions, and other particles and their wave functions, are probabilistic and are not deterministic. Because all matter and energy is composed of these particles and waves that are in certain situations, not deterministic, these effects carry up to the large scale, and mean that our universe, and everything in it, is non-deterministic. While some things have properties of determinism, ultimately in the long run, knowing everything about that object will not give you the ability to determine what it’s state will be at a later time.

    Because are brains are controlled by the complex interactions of neurons, which are individual cells that are microscopic, the fact that are cells are closer to the scale at which some things are probabilistic, they are more affected by these effects (and use them sometimes in certain cellular processes, an example is that some enzymes use quantum tunneling, which is probabilistic, to move electrons from one place to another in reactions to combine molecules, or break molecules. (This is the emerging field of quantum biology)) which, because of the nature of the brain, and that it is composed of complex networks of microscopic neurons that are affected by the indeterminism at this small scale, means that the decisions that the brain (and the emergence of the mind from the brain, but that is not the topic of this discussion) comes to are not deterministic, even if they are in response to previous outside stimuli, they are eventually determined by non determinate things, which means that we have free will (though I do believe that agency is a better term to use). (I apologize for any imperfect wording of thoughts and ideas in this post. I did my best to put it down in a logical and understandable manner.)