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Fear vs free will

dadapolka

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From wolframAlpha:

Number of neurons in human brain:
100 billion
Assuming all are interconnected to all others:
10 thousand billion billion(10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)
(of course not every neuron is connected to every other, so the actual number is less)
Number of atoms in human body:
7x10 to the 27th power (7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)
Number of atoms in universe:
1x10 to the 80th power (big)

So then the person who started the myth that there were as many is a rather big idiot :D
Still, that's a lot of possibility you've got there in the human brain.
WolframAlpha is awesome.
 

lowtech redneck

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Kant addressed this question from all angles without the evidence and concluded that while we're likely to be automatons it was a categorical imperative to believe in free will and act as though self-determinism existed. Perhaps in order to make it a reality one day.

I tend to agree with that perspective (not Kantianism in general, just that part about free will)-I have a simliar attitude on the concept of individual rights.

But if 'free will' is defined as rational thought and actions with long-term goals in mind, then shortnsweet is right; fear is more 'instinctual' than most other emotions, and can therefore very easily cloud one's judgement.
 

Lark

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I tend to agree with that perspective (not Kantianism in general, just that part about free will)-I have a simliar attitude on the concept of individual rights.

But if 'free will' is defined as rational thought and actions with long-term goals in mind, then shortnsweet is right; fear is more 'instinctual' than most other emotions, and can therefore very easily cloud one's judgement.

Although the dichotomies between reason and instinct or reason and passion or reason and sensualism or reason and feeling (there's a lot of dichotomies to choose from, looks like every couple of generations its rendered anew) is as old as the hills and useful in a discussion I'm not sure we're not more of a 'blending' in reality.

Free will matters because its an idea with a powerful emotion or affect linked to it too.

Many a dream and fantasy tied into it.
 

lowtech redneck

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From wolframAlpha:

Number of neurons in human brain:
100 billion
Assuming all are interconnected to all others:
10 thousand billion billion(10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)
(of course not every neuron is connected to every other, so the actual number is less)
Number of atoms in human body:
7x10 to the 27th power (7,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000)
Number of atoms in universe:
1x10 to the 80th power (big)

Physics is not even remotely an area in which I excell or claim a large degree of knowledge in, but isn't this comparing apples to oranges? Wouldn't the atoms in the human body be under certain constraints in order to maintain the human form, and therefore exhibit much less diversity and divergence of responses to various forms of stimuli than nuerons?
 

Such Irony

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Fear.

Is a choice.

Don't completely agree with this. Some of fear is instinctually based. If someone is literally chasing you with a gun and plans to kill you, can you really choose not to be afraid? Or if you wake up and your house is burning? I think most people would be afraid and it would show up in the body's natural fear response. Adrenaline kicks up, heartbeat increases, fight or flee reaction. I don't you can fully control the body response in this case. It's a natural instinct and its a good thing to have if it saves our lives.
 

Stanton Moore

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Physics is not even remotely an area in which I excell or claim a large degree of knowledge in, but isn't this comparing apples to oranges? Wouldn't the atoms in the human body be under certain constraints in order to maintain the human form, and therefore exhibit much less diversity and divergence of responses to various forms of stimuli than nuerons?

I was responding to a post by dadapolka,in which s/he stated that the brain has more neuronal connections than there are atoms in the universe. So for that it was a matter of numbers, not function.
 

dadapolka

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I was responding to a post by dadapolka,in which s/he stated that the brain has more neuronal connections than there are atoms in the universe. So for that it was a matter of numbers, not function.

I didn't state anything! :tongue10:
'apparently' <- And then I went on to say 'whatever the quantity I'm sure it's a huge number'.
I didn't know whether it was completely true, so that is why I threw that part in brackets!
 
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This is a topic of deep personal interest to me. This excerpt is the most comprehensive and profound viewpoint on the matter I've seen to date:

"Through the years I have always been fascinated by the religions of the world. I can remember way back as a junior high student wanting to write a paper on the Buddhist world because I was so curious about false religion. Through the days of my college and seminary and ever since then, I've always had a fascination for false systems of religion.

One of the things that has become apparent to me over the years is that it is characteristic of the false gods of this world to be remote, transcendent, distant and impersonal. Most of those deities, frankly, are fabricated out of fear. Since they are not true gods and since they do not truly exist, they are the invention of men. And since men live all their life long in bondage to the fear of death, they tend to be deities that are designed by men in fear. The Old Testament tells us that when men then design their deities, demons impersonate the deities that men have designed and do enough supernatural activity to keep men captive to the deities of their own design.

But it is across the board common to the deities that men have invented in the great religions of the world that their deities are impersonal. And because their very invention is founded upon a fear factor, there is a no sense a longing on the part of the worshiper to have any kind of association with the deity. There is no cry in the heart to have fellowship with the deity. The deity is not portrayed as one who seeks any relationship with the creature. And so, gods are invented who for the most part are only appealed to on the basis of appeasement so that someone could avoid the inevitable death which they so greatly fear."

(John MacAurther)
 

Stanton Moore

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I didn't state anything! :tongue10:
'apparently' <- And then I went on to say 'whatever the quantity I'm sure it's a huge number'.
I didn't know whether it was completely true, so that is why I threw that part in brackets!

Chillax. I quoted you incorrectly. Forgivesies?:cry:
 

dadapolka

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Chillax. I quoted you incorrectly. Forgivesies?:cry:

I will never forgive you.
(was just being silly with that, I didn't really take offence ever in the first place xD. Must remind myself that this is the internet.)
 
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