Sex and Crystal Meth

That's not what my blog is actually about, but Olivia's posts always get more views than mine, so I'm hoping this will do the trick. Anyway, I've been pretty bored lately with school and such, so I've been focusing my energy on random stuff that will mess with my mind. Whether it be the universe, free-will, moral systems, or life after death, it doesn't matter. I could talk about any and all of these for hours, which I probably will over the course of this blog, but I'm completely unsure which to talk about now. Random number generator here I come! Results on the way.
It was a 2.
Thank god. Free-will is so interesting.
A philosophical question that likely will never be really solved is that of free will v. determinism. Free will is thought of as the ability to do otherwise, which is essentially that the universe doesn't already have a path for you, and you make your own path. You have the ability to make choices. The other side is determinism, which is essentially that everything that happens, every choice you make, has its own conditions behind it. If the conditions (same past experiences, same point in time, same genetics, same everything) there is no way that any other decision would be made. Debate this: Whatever you had for breakfast this morning, if you followed the exact same path for your entire life, and you wake up on this morning in time millions of times, will you ever do otherwise? Will you ever choose anything else?
Take a moment to think(don't skip this) and decide which one makes sense to you. Don't let me influence you.

Don't skip this.

























Stop scrolling and think, you devious anarchists.



















Alright, good. Now, I'd like to state first of all that I'm not god. I don't know the answer. I could be wrong, so no one get defensive in the comments. I'm arguing for the sake of arguing, and because it's a mind trip. Like I said, I'm really bored. This stuff fascinates me.

Anyway, as some of you may have guessed with my breakfast analogy, I'm a fan of the determinist point of view. A big reason is that everything in the universe, is made of matter. Matter is governed by unchangable physical laws. Your brain is made of matter. Ipso facto, your brain is governed by unchangable physical laws. Some say that the brain is different in some way, so when I heard this argument, I wanted to figure out where the line of "different" is drawn. So, a buddy of mine came up with this situation, here goes.
You're walking down the street, and are hit by a bus. You lose both your legs, and are replaced by fully functional prosthetic legs. You can feel everything, and they work exactly the same, yet they're synthetic. Are you still you? Can you still make decisions? (Nod your head "Yes")
You're walking down the street again, and are hit by another bus. You lose both your arms this time. Again, they're replaced by fully prosthetic arms, fully functional, and with sense of touch and all that. Synthetic. Are you still you? Can you still make decisions? (Nod your head "Yes")
You're walking down the street yet again (You would think you'd stop going down the street by now, but that's not important) and are hit by another bus. Your torso is wiped out, and all of your organs and such are completely replaced with synthetics. Same deal, fully functional, blah blah blah. Same questions, nod your head "yes" again, you monkeys.
Blah blah blah street bus, and your head is hit. New medical breakthroughs allow your head to be replaced synthetically, and you'll be exactly the same. Your memories, your thoughts, everything about you is exactly the same. Yet you're fully synthetic. Do you, a complete robot have free will? Even though everything about you is completely programmed? What if I create a robot not based on a human, and make him whatever person I'd like? Does that robot have free will?

If you answered "no" to any of the questions, good for you. You're hopeful. Are we all nothing but the sum of our experiences and genetics? We'd undoubtedly have different viewpoints if we were exposed to different environments. I don't know. Anyway guys, this is a great discussion topic. Don't just read this and not comment. COMMENT. Discussions are good for the soul. Show that you have the free will to comment.