Redirecting a Domain Using .htaccess

I have, over the last few years, put out a number of arguments against the
possibility of free will. My most popular so far has been that of
my Two-Lever Argument, which can be found here. I now wish to make a separate, distinct argument argument against free
will called the Zero-Control argument.

The Zero-Control argument asks one to imagine a world before he was born.
Imagine looking down at an earth without you in it. Now ask yourself how
much control you have over that world. How much do you consciously affect
what goes on in it? I think we can all agree the answer is zero.

Next, consider what happens after your parents have brought about the
preconditions for your life. As you sit in the womb, sloshing to and fro as
a collection of molecules and cells that you had no input into the
organization of, what degree of control or choice do you have regarding your
actions? What choices are you able to make that are not fully dependent on
inputs from your genetic makeup and your environment? I think most will
agree that the answer is still “none”.

The task now is to look at the next milestones of development–say, being a
“willful” toddler who terrorizes households and disobeys the commands of
parents. If one is to offer that such displays of “will” are now “free”,
this raises the obvious question of, “When did that happen?” To be more
pointed, at what point did the transition occur between being a simple
collection of inputs processed by biological hardware, to being some sort of
free being capable of making choices independent of inputs?

The same scenario can be extended to adolescence, or even full adulthood.
The burden is on the believer in free will to describe, after admitting that
a non-existent human has zero control, and a baby in the womb has pretty
much the same amount, how exactly it is that someone switches from being
purely deterministic to having free will. 1 Let’s go from step one to
adulthood:

1. You don’t exist. // control 0

2. You are a spermatozoon. // control 0

3. You are a fertilized egg. // control 0Up to this point it’s probably
   pretty clear that we, at this stage, are simply atoms bouncing off of
   each other. The key is to ask what changes as we progress.

4. You are an embryo in the womb. // control 0

5. You are a newborn. // what are you doing other than responding to your
   environment given your genetic makeup?

6. You are a toddler. // you now appear to be willful, but what has
   actually changed?

7. You are an adolescent. // now you have your own opinions, can be
   creative, etc. But again…same problem.

8. You are an adult. // see above

It seems clear that no transition ever takes place from zero control to more
than zero control. We continue to be a collection of atoms bumping into each
other, just as we were when we were spermatozoons clearly without free will.
The perception of free will that comes as we mature is no different than the
perception of intent in complex things like weather. As a primitive species,
when we don’t understand something due to it’s complexity and hidden cause,
we ascribe a sentient, mystical element to it.

We used to do this in how we described natural disasters and disease (it
must be God!), and now we do the same with free will. The more we learn
about the brain the more we’ll learn the actual, deterministic causes for
the decisions we make.2 The mystery will fall away from this just as it has
for countless other natural phenomenon in the past. To assume otherwise is
nothing less than foolish. ::

Notes

1 Compatabilists, in my mind, are contorting free will to mean something
other than making choices outside of natural inputs, therefore are excluded
from the discussion. They’ve changed the definition as most think of it into
“practical” free will, which I agree with by the way. See my essay on
Absolute vs. Practical Free Will.2 This is already happening. We’re already able to observe “free choices”
being made in very predictable fashion prior to the subject feeling they’ve
made the choice, and we’re also able to directly influence people to make
choices we want them to while the person feels they’re making the
choice.