Consciousness is the observer, and materialism is observed. Materialism inconsistently attempts to explain and interpret a scientific description of the relativistic quantum field theory. Materialism can’t explain how Consciousness has the causal capacity to allow us to think, talk, and write about its properties. The mind is material, and Consciousness is immaterial. Free will does not require indeterminism. Free will and determinism are mutually exclusive. Our Consciousness acts freely. This is because our mind is material, while our Consciousness is immaterial.
Yes, determinism is incompatible with free will. Behavior has a predictable cause, but only sometimes. Free will can override a causal decision before it happens. Yes, past performance is usually a predictor of current and future behavior, except when free will steps in and alters the result.
The mind is about mental processes, thought, and Consciousness. The body is about the physical aspects of the brain neurons and how the brain is structured. Materialism fails in the materialistic reconstruction of all mental and teleological phenomena that living humans possess. Consciousness communicates physically between the cognitive functions supported in the body and the cognitive functions supported in the brain. The universe is mechanical, above the quantum level. Quantum mechanics is deterministic or not. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t, every time I roll the dice.
If something is working, it didn’t happen accidentally.
Randomness can’t even build a bobsled. Ditto for natural selection.
No one would be morally responsible for any actions in a deterministic world because no one would deserve blame or punishment. It’s not my fault; I had no choice but to do it. It is never true that people could have decided or acted otherwise than they did. Free to choose can never happen to you. You’re only a pawn in the game; the moves are always made for you. Your events are completely pre-determined by existing previous causes. Are you stupid, or what?
Fundamentally the reductionist approach is flawed and based on false premises. Determinism is a philosophical ideal predicated on the idea of perfect knowledge of how the universe works and of everything in it. Our brains are very complex decision-making machines. Your decisions are binary in structure, deterministic, and free to choose. A myriad of factors is sorted through in less than a heartbeat.
Determinism runs through the options; then, choice takes over. Free to choose always makes a choice.
The incompatibilist theory of free will is the correct choice. Determinism is just half of the binary choice process.
Quantum mechanics says that nothing is fully defined and measurable, so there is space for free will to exist. Remember: The mind is material, and Consciousness is immaterial. Consciousness is more than a property of the brain in action. It is a repository for a lifetime of known thoughts. It also contains the soul. Both items are the crop to be harvested from this current event. Note: some of this crop got contaminated, so that the yield will be down.
Consciousness is not a thing; it is a state of awareness. Consciousness creates physical reality, not the other way around. The brain is physical, but Consciousness is not the brain. We are entirely dependent on our five senses to detect the universe. We have thoughts, and we also can memorize them. Thoughts arise from our memory bank. Thoughts are the recall function of memory.
Consciousness lies beyond the grasp of our five senses. No thought or memory has ever been detected because they aren’t material. Consciousness is not material. It is behind all perceptions, but it is beyond perception. It is impossible to get behind consciousness and perceive it since it is the one that is doing all the perception. A camera cannot take a shot of itself. Consciousness cannot see itself because it is not material. The doors to perception to see our Consciousness can’t be opened. The gate’s too high, we can’t jump it.
If something is working, it didn’t happen accidentally.
Randomness can’t even build a bobsled. Ditto for natural selection.
