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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!eagle!mhuxt!mhuxj!mhuxl!mhuxm!pyuxi!pyuxn!rlr
From: rlr@pyuxn.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: the case against identical universes
Message-ID: <170@pyuxn.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 26-Aug-83 11:16:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxn.170
Posted: Fri Aug 26 11:16:23 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 27-Aug-83 22:54:17 EDT
References: <1913@tekecs.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Piscataway
Lines: 29

>   There's this bizarre little rule in modern physics called the
>   Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, which states that it is impossible in
>   principle to nail down the exact position and velocity of any particle.
>   It sounds as though you're one step from the "no free will" argument,
>   which states (briefly) that, since the future is entirely determined,
>   it is nonsense to believe that you can make a choice between two
>   actions; one of them is going to happen and you have no choice.  It
>   then follows that we cannot blame you for your actions, since you had
>   no choice.  We free-will advocates breathed a sigh of relief when we found
>   out about Heisenberg.
>   
>   -=- Andrew Klossner  (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew)  [UUCP]

Logic is an amazing thing when used by those with something important to say.
Determinism claims that there is no free will because every action in the
universe can be predicted by physical laws.  The Heisenberg principle claims
that according to physical laws there is NO way to make such predictions.
Therefore there must be free will.

To anyone who follows that logic:  I've got some land in Florida and a bridge
in Brooklyn...

Given the evidence, I have no choice (but what about free will!!!!!) but to
believe in some middle ground between determinism and freewillism.  Call it
'indeterminism' if you will.  I guess if physics can't predict everything,
maybe the universe is simply random/unpredictable, but this doesn't imply
free will.  More like 'random will'.  This notion that "it can't be random;
something must control all of this" is the same notion that leads some tto
jump to the conclusion that there "has to be" a god.		Rich