Another Moonbat Academic!

[Said1]

Prof Denies Human Free Will
August 30, 2005
by Julie Geng
Sun Senior Writer
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Resistence is futile. Prof. William Provine, ecology and evolutionary biology, argues against intelligent design and human free will yesterday before an audience of about sixty.
In the midst of a heated national debate about intelligent design and evolution, Prof. William Provine, ecology and evolutionary biology, tackled the question head-on in a discussion attended by over 60 students, faculty and Ithacan community members last night. Sponsored by the Bioethics Society of Cornell, the lecture, titled “Evolution and Intelligent Design: The Implications for Human Free Will” covered topics including Darwinism, the origin of moral responsibility, the social need to assign blame and reductionism.

“I was a vocal opponent to I.D. [intelligent design] even before [the movement] began,” Provine said at the opening.

One of the most fascinating views of I.D. supporters, Provine said, was that the only differences between humans and chimpanzees were “human free will and immortal souls.”

These differences presumably proved the existence of a creator, but Provine refused to believe that view.

“Choosing doesn’t imply free will,” he said. “Choices are not made freely — there are all kinds of constraints on it.” In an attempt to discredit the view that lack of free will would “lead society into a downward spiral,” Provine argued that without free will there would be no means of blaming people for their actions. “Blame is useless,” he said. “It just creates a horrible system of criminal justice.”

He added that if society recognized the absence of free will, society would ultimately be much kinder to its less fortunate.

“I hated the idea of human free will,” Provine added. He also argued that humans mostly provide their own moral guidance, and that “ultimate moral responsibility is nonexistent.” He admitted, “Free will is the hardest [preconception] … to give up.”

The lecture received mixed reactions from the crowd.

“He makes a lot of good points,” said Scott Jackson, one of the attendees. “But there are also a lot of problems with the idea of free will as he was talking about free will. He makes a lot of jumps to conclusions as if they were obvious.” Jackson added that he saw two kinds of views on free will: libertarian free will and volitional free will.

“[Provine] seemed to be talking about [volitional] free will,” Jackson said. Libertarian free will, he explained, was where despite knowing all information about external circumstances and internal states, there remains no means of predicting with complete accuracy the final choice of any given individual.

Volitional free will, he said, was where the choice could be predicted with accuracy.

Pastor Rick Bair of the Lutheran Campus Mission stayed late to discuss the implications of the lecture with attendees.

“We’re kind of lost,” Bair said to The Sun, “He can’t define what free will is … although it was an entertaining presentation.”

“He’s a very popular professor … who came highly recommended, and he was pretty amusing,” said Matt Wong ’06, president of the Bioethics Society.

When asked about the reactions from the crowd, Wong said, “He left a lot of questions unanswered. We want to continue the discussion of this topic and we hope to in our weekly student-led meetings every Monday.”

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[ScreamingEagle]

"Hey Judge, I'm not guilty - I have no free will so you can't blame me for robbing and killing that person!"

 

[manu1959]

“I was a vocal opponent to I.D. [intelligent design] even before [the movement] began,” Provine said at the opening.

i was against it before it existed....i voted for it before i voted against it....overeducated liberal crap

 

[HorhayAtAMD]

"Hey Judge, I'm not guilty - I have no free will so you can't blame me for robbing and killing that person!"

Hey killer, I have no free will either so you can't blame me for sending you to jail for life.

 

[HorhayAtAMD]

It is a potentially amusing topic of discussion but I don't see how any conclusion either way affects our lives. If I decide to turn left instead of right, does it matter if I did it freely or if I was coerced by evolution or God or random electrical impulses in my brain? At the end of the day, I wanted to turn left (I think), I turned left, and now I must deal with the consequences (good and bad) of turning left. I come from a family who could debate this for hours after dinner and have fun doing it but you absolutely cannot take yourself seriously during or after the debate.

 

[William Joyce]

“Free will is the hardest [preconception] … to give up.”

This is probably true. Nobody wants to think of their life path as limited by anything but their own imaginations. But life paths are limited by DNA, with some room for improvement. But only some. Chances are darn good you will end up like your parents.

 

[Said1]

“Free will is the hardest [preconception] … to give up.”

This is probably true. Nobody wants to think of their life path as limited by anything but their own imaginations. But life paths are limited by DNA, with some room for improvement. But only some. Chances are darn good you will end up like your parents.

F**k that.

 

[manu1959]

“Free will is the hardest [preconception] … to give up.”

This is probably true. Nobody wants to think of their life path as limited by anything but their own imaginations. But life paths are limited by DNA, with some room for improvement. But only some. Chances are darn good you will end up like your parents.

ended up nothing like my parents.....i am a guy and mom is a chick.....i graduated college she didn't....i am a partner in a firm she is a receptionist.....dad died when i was 18.....i have out lived him by 27 years and lived longer than he did by 5 ....my marriage has lasted longer than theirs .... blah blah blah ..... the only thing that limits you is you

 

[Gunny]

F**k that.

Well said, Said. Heaven forbid!

 

[no1tovote4]

“Free will is the hardest [preconception] … to give up.”

This is probably true. Nobody wants to think of their life path as limited by anything but their own imaginations. But life paths are limited by DNA, with some room for improvement. But only some. Chances are darn good you will end up like your parents.

Only if you are so foolish as to never learn from another's mistakes. Parents teach you much, even sometimes negatively. Will I be a Drunk like my father? No, I learned from his mistake. Will I spend frivolously like my mother? No, I learned from her mistake. As early as 20 I was already on a path different than that of my parents. It isn't too difficult to improve your life if you choose, set plans, work toward those plans...