Free Will: Hard Determinism

When it comes to the question of free will, I would have to say I am a hard determinist. I once thought that we had a choice, but these choices were decided by our world. I had some understanding of this idea without searching out an answer to describe it as hard determinism. The universe has it's own natural processes that we understand through chemistry, physics, math, and other fields of study. These processes have a cause and effect relationship, so they influence our environment, which leads to determined factors. Everything is an unbroken chain of events, and the present is the result of what came before. All our thoughts, actions, and our whole lives are governed by this sequence of events. As I am writing this paper my actions come …show more content…
Some reasons I don't believe in god because of the problem of evil existing, and the lack of scientific proof. I think our discusions on Richard Swinburne still has faults, and the other "proofs" for God are not proof so much as good ideas. Since I look for answers with proof, science became my solution to mmy questions. Science lead me to the incomplete idea that everything is determind because of natural laws and states. Thus it wasn't hard to belive in hard determinism, and it didn't change lack of belief in …show more content…
This comes down to moral codes and your responsibility. Some believe that their morals are spiritual and come from God, but I think differently. I have my own morals, but I don't believe, and I'm not going out committing horrible acts. Some would say that I still have them because of God even if I don't believe. I would then like to point out my eariler examples for being an atheiest to show why that isn't true. Then I would say that because morals are mental and emotional states, which like the example of eariler are ultimately part of the physical world. I will admit I am still thinking about whether we are morally responsible, and may make a better arguement in the future. With that out of the way, I currently believe that you are not morally accountable for your actions, but are still punished because of the cause and effect part of our world. We live in society where humans set up laws, and by breaking one you are subject to punishment. Not that you may deserve or could help what you have done, but it's a result of the unbroken chain of events that a law was extablished after or as a precaution to unwanted behavior. So as to how someone should act while alive, I would say that we have determined morals and lack responsiblity for those actions, but are still affected by how the world works. Again I will be revisting this idea for the rest of the class or even longer, but I do like to revise and