No Stu - it seems you are two steps behind and do not realize the implications of your argument on your espoused weltanschauung.
I wholeheartedly support stu's free will to believe he has no free will so he can exercise that free will to maintain his atheism. I support his belief system for him, and I hope he supports others and their own belief systems. When we get down to "I define it so you can't challenge it" then I know we are no longer having much of a discussion or exchange, just stating belief systems is all...which is fine.
Ok we disagree on free will....You say we do not have free will....I will accept that as your belief....but you follow it up with : " but there is obviously purpose in living"..... so once again what is the obvious purpose in living a life without free will? what is the purpose of man that is obvious?
Then you also might be and remain under a simialr misconception that being free to choose to spend your money means money is free. Free will is not the same thing as free choice
just to set the record straight. Stu this is an example of why you are incapable of having an reasonable argument when you are found to be wrong. You refuse acknowledge your patently absurd postion. One only needs to look up "free will" at thesaurus.com to see you are wrong. 6 results for: free will 1-6 of 6 results View results from: Dictionary | Thesaurus | Encyclopedia | the Web Roget's New Millennium⢠Thesaurus - Cite This Source Main Entry: free will Part of Speech: noun Definition: choice Synonyms: assent, choice, consent, desire, determination, discretion, free choice, freedom, inclination, intent, intention, mind, option, own hook, pleasure, power, purpose, say so*, velleity, volition, voluntary decision, willingness, wish Source: Roget's New Millennium⢠Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.3.1) Copyright © 2006 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved. * = informal or slang Roget's New Millennium⢠Thesaurus - Cite This Source Main Entry: free will Part of Speech: noun 2 Definition: free choice Synonyms: choice, conation, free decision, one's discretion, one's own choice, one's own will, volition Source: Roget's New Millennium⢠Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.3.1) Copyright © 2006 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved. Roget's New Millennium⢠Thesaurus - Cite This Source Main Entry: choice Part of Speech: noun Definition: selection Synonyms: alternative, appraisal, bag, choosing, cull, decision, determination, discretion, discrimination, distinction, druthers*, election, evaluation, extract, favorite, finding, free will, judgment, opportunity, option, pick, preference, rating, say, substitute, variety, verdict, volition, vote, weakness Source: Roget's New Millennium⢠Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.3.1) Copyright © 2006 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved. * = informal or slang Roget's New Millennium⢠Thesaurus - Cite This Source Main Entry: free hand Part of Speech: noun Definition: freedom to act and make decisions Synonyms: carte blanche, free choice, free course, freedom, free play, free scope, free will, full scope, independence, latitude, leeway, liberty, one's choice, one's discretion, one's initiative Source: Roget's New Millennium⢠Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.3.1) Copyright © 2006 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved. Roget's New Millennium⢠Thesaurus - Cite This Source Main Entry: on purpose Part of Speech: adverb Definition: done of one's own free will Synonyms: by design, consciously, deliberately, in cold blood, intentionally, knowingly, of one's own free will, premeditatedly, purposefully, willfully, with full intent, wittingly Source: Roget's New Millennium⢠Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.3.1) Copyright © 2006 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved. Roget's New Millennium⢠Thesaurus - Cite This Source Main Entry: option Part of Speech: noun Definition: alternative Synonyms: advantage, benefit, choice, claim, dibs*, dilemma, discretion, druthers, election, flipside*, franchise, free will*, grant, license, opportunity, pickup, preference, prerogative, privilege, right, security, selection, title Source: Roget's New Millennium⢠Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.3.1) Copyright © 2006 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved. * = informal or slang See STU - selection, election perogative, volition, ones choice, and on and on. Free choice is virtually the same as free will. You seem to be arguing for a will that is not constrained. Or even omnipotence or omniciesnce. Because taken to the absurd point you are making to have free will requires complete knowledge and the power to use it. But of course as you do in almost every argument you will try and find a clown on the internet who agrees with you. or you will seize on the words up there "full scope" and take them out of context and act like you are being reasonable. No STU it is your job to cite a scholarly source who can be as authoratiative as rogets.
I notice jem, you still cannot conduct an argument without including insult. But I have at least improved your understanding to a degree, as now you can spell and therefore use the world 'cite' correctly and spell weltanschauung. There you see TM, there is purpose in life. Well, the last thing you are doing is keeping anything straight , let alone the record . So you remain unable to think for yourself, relying on 'scholars', specially selected just as long as those particular scholars "virtually" agree with your position enough to content yourself , keeping contradiction as your guide. Virtually the same? Like every woman is virtually pregnant until she conceives? But then again I am not surprised. Your whole argument for religion has ever teetered upon ridiculous conjecture. Doesn't the God idea really have free will? So how is It's free will "virtually the same" as your free will? It isn't is it? Otherwise you would have the free will of God. What God is supposed to have , really is free will, isn't it? People have free will. But they don't. Only God really has free will. Another in a theist's long list of bizarre contradiction.
More "Lively Exchange" from stu... Round and round she goes, and where she stops, nobody knows.... <img src=http://jacobsmedia.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/man_hamster_wheel_lg_nwm.gif>
I am arguing free will is not constrained. A will constrained is not free, is it. How strange. You take and grant that "absurd point" of complete knowledge and the power to use it to something called God. Stranger still , because of that "absurd point" you take things to, the something called God supposedly has free will. You seem to acknowledge, albeit through the back door via the God idea, what free will might really be. But you also need to contradict yourself at the same time, because as a theist, religion requires you have the free will, which by my argument you actually don't.