
Free Will vs. Determinism as the Core of Political Disagreement - jackfoxy
http://danielmiessler.com/blog/free-will-vs-determinism-as-the-core-of-political-disagreement
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LeafStorm
Let's think about this for a second.

The Abrahamic religions (which are the ones that the author is skewering here)
teach that all humans are made in the image of God. This implies that (a)
human life has inherent value, and (b) humans have a moral responsibility to
God. This means that people have a reason - really, an obligation - to be
compassionate towards each other.

On the other hand, an atheistic worldview backed by determinism implies that
(a) humans have no more intrinsic value than a tree, and therefore (b) humans
don't have a moral responsibility to anyone. This means that there is no real
reason for people to be compassionate to others.

So, religious people with a proper understanding of their religion's doctrines
should be far more compassionate than equivalent atheists. The fact that we
don't see that compassion borne out can be attributed to three factors:

First, there are unfortunately many religious people who have bought into the
"Gospel of Ben" - "God helps those who helps themselves." This isn't actually
anywhere in the Bible, Ben Franklin made it up. And unfortunately this is
something that appeals a lot to politicians.

Second, many religious people believe that charity should be handled by
church, and not by the state. They also believe in separation of church and
state and the limitation of state power, which were actually principles
developed by Christians. The author is committing a fallacy in assuming that
all charity must be state charity.

And third, many "organic atheists" are still operating based on their
conscience, which the atheistic worldview does not actually have room for.
There cannot be a supernatural conscience if there is no supernatural, and
evolution has no solid way to explain the development of a moral system that
goes _against_ survival.

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yummyfajitas
Actually, it's not even all Abrahamic religions. Muslims and Lutherans believe
in predestination, Catholics seem confused and Jews like to argue about it
(the wikipedia article doesn't describe Jews/Catholics views very well).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predestination>

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yummyfajitas
I'll ignore all the political baiting the author does ("...hate-filled
healthcare-reform protesters...") and actually focus on his core arguments
since they are intellectually interesting.

 _the belief in free will leads to a lack of compassion for those who suffer_

The belief in free will merely suggests that one should look more closely at
why a person is suffering.

I.e., was the person born into bad circumstances, from which virtually no set
of choices could have allowed them to escape? Or are their circumstances
caused by choices they made themselves?

To borrow examples from my own life, I (an atheist) have a great deal of
sympathy for the average hard working upper middle class Indian. I have far
less sympathy for the typical "poor" American (far richer than the Indian) who
chooses not to look for a job.

