Every single thing you do, you do for a reason. And it's all choices -- everywhere. Even when you do trivial things such as ordering coffee, buying a cell phone or not eating the chocolate bar you catch a glimpse of while looking through the drawers in your kitchen for something to put your teeth in. We can all agree on that, right?
But how do you fit the free will liberal thought bases itself on in here? To make an example, when you chose to order a cup of coffee, it's not unprovoked. It might be because your parents always did and you because of this feel it's what a person such as yourself should do too, or perhaps you used to date a girl that liked the atmosphere of coffee shops and got you addicted or any complicated mix of elements such as these -- maybe even some you've inherited genetically, but however you put it, there's never any sign of any magical force such as free will there. It's just a calculation. Cause and effect.
Now, I'm not insisting that the universe is deterministic as quantum mechanics pretty much rule that out as a scientific claim, but there's still not any room for any free will. So if you're rich it's just chance. Your actions, results of millions of calculations, further interacting with your surroundings. Meaning that if you end up as a poor drug using thief or an industrial magnate, it's not your doing -- just chance.
I understand the religious point of view, though I still don't mind hearing them, but not the atheist, so-called liberal one. If all people are equal, and this is an important building stone of liberal thought, isn't it natural for the luckier to even it out by also supporting the unluckier? Imagine a multiplayer fighting game where everyone starts with a random amount of strength. Is that fair? Shouldn't the developers, the politicians, try to even it out if both the players are meant to have the same amount of fun -- are worth the same? Because I'd never want to play such a game if I had any choice, even if I ended up with twice as much strength as my opponent.
Also.
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/974...osoraptorp.png
And why was the holocaust so bad when humankind murders six billion animals every year? With no soul or free will, nothing makes us superior to them. The animals have got nervous system's too, as well as a calculator or a mind if you'd like, albeit a less complicated one, but they still feel the same things as us. They're just not able to express it in the same way as us.
The typical answer is that we're stronger than the animals and thus should eat them because they would eat us if they were in our position. But wasn't that exactly what the nazis were saying about jews too?
Discuss why I'm wrong about there being no free will and/or what the consequences of there being no free will is.
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