• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
You are here: Home / B to L Cat / Free Will / Denying Determinism – Our Natural and Supernatural Illusions of Will – Stuart Vyse Ph.D Believing in Magic

Denying Determinism – Our Natural and Supernatural Illusions of Will – Stuart Vyse Ph.D Believing in Magic

26th May 2017 by Red Johnson Leave a Comment

Dominoes
Source:

Last semester I taught a new seminar on the psychology of free will. The upshot of the class—and of a wealth of recent research on the subject—was that the evidence in favor of free will is weak. We all have a profound sense that we are free agents, masters of our own fates who choose our actions on the basis of sound reasoning or, in some cases, mere whim. But however we come to our decisions, we have a strong sense that we are the ones doing the deciding.

The problem, of course, is that determinism seems to work so well in every other area of nature. The physical world appears to be quite lawful. As our knowledge of physics and chemistry have expanded, so has our ability to predict and control natural events. It all works quite well, making our lives increasingly predictable. If, on the other hand, our cars, groceries, and living room furniture were granted the freedom to act as they wish—in accordance with the laws of physics, or not—we would be faced with some serious challenges. Life would become random and chaotic.

So why is human behavior so special? Does it make sense that we alone should stand apart from the rest of nature? Is it reasonable to think that humans possess a non-material mind that makes decisions for the material body but is itself not caused or determined by anything else? A ghostly entity floating above the ordinary clockwork of biology and physics.

This is a question philosophers have struggled with for centuries, and I will not attempt to solve it here. But a few things are clear. First, the belief in a conscious free will is strong and widely held. When you wake up and decide what clothes to put on in the morning, it seems abundantly obvious that you were the one who decided. You chose the beige corduroy pants and the green sweater, but had you felt just a little differently, you might have chosen the plaid skirt and the white turtleneck. Even in Asian societies where we expect to find more collectivist attitudes and a diminished sense of individualism, belief in an individual conscious will is strong.

Furthermore, whether our sense of will is genuine or not, we like it. In most cases, we prefer to feel in control. If accused of wrong-doing, we may claim that we had no choice, lost control, or, for some other reason, were not really responsible. We shouldn’t be blamed. But most of the time, we seek a sense of agency and control. We want to be the masters of our own fates and to receive credit for the things we achieve. Part of that sense of mastery comes from the predictable nature of the world around us. The natural processes of the deterministic world are a comfort to us. When we move physical objects, they behave in ways we have come to understand and expect. The seasons, the waxing and waning of day, the movements of bodies of water all play out their roles as they have for as long as we can remember.

But sometimes the natural world disappoints us, and we turn to the supernatural. These breaks in the usual order are quite interesting, and there are enough examples to fill many blog posts. In the future, I will write about the use of miracles as evidence of god’s existence, the thrilling nature fictional characters with supernatural powers, and our feeling of awe and disbelief at the stage magician’s seemingly impossible accomplishments. All of these cases represent interesting breaks from the naturalistic world.

But for now let’s consider superstition, the primary topic of this blog. Superstition is another kind of denial of determinism. When the deterministic world fails to bring us the things we want with sufficient certainty, we turn to forces beyond standard physics. Often there is a causal chain of events, but we just can’t get ourselves into it with sufficient influence or certainty. For example, as we wait for the results of a medical test, we understand that there is a natural process that will result in either a positive or negative result. But this process is going on somewhere else, outside our range of vision, and, at this late stage of the process, we have no role in the chain of events. The disease has either been acquired or avoided, and there is nothing we can do about it now. It is too late for any natural process to have an effect. However, because we have a sense of will and prefer to feel as if we are in control, we are often willing to deny the deterministic nature of our predicament and turn to the supernatural for relief. If performing a superstitious ritual or wearing a lucky bit of jewelry on the day you receive the test results is going to have any effect on the outcome, we must be willing to deny the usual limitations of a scientific world. At least for a moment.

When we turn to superstition, we are using the sense of will over our behavior and the world around us—all of which may be an illusion in the first place—but in this case we are extending that sense even further than usual. Under normal circumstances, we have the illusion that we control parts of the natural world, and in most cases, our actions have expected and predictable effects. But when the deterministic world fails to guarantee us the things we want, we are likely to extend our illusory sense of will into places science says it cannot go. Much of the time, a predictable deterministic world serves us quite well, but when it falls short, we are quite willing to deny determinism and turn to magical means of influence.

Filed Under: Free Will

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Recent Posts

  • peanuts
  • zd
  • (no title)
  • ASSYRIOLOGY ITS USE AND ABUSE IN OLD TESTAMENT 5*
  • Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity are all connected 5*INFO

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2021
  • October 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • November 2019
  • March 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • March 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016

Categories

  • 10 Commandments
  • A Categories
    • A ICCEBERG – 5*
    • A ICCEBERG – IS THE WORLD A FRIENDLY PLACE?
    • A ICEBERG – 123 P R I V A T E
    • A ICEBERG – 6 DAY WAR
    • A ICEBERG – ABRAHAM
    • A ICEBERG – ADAM AND EVE
    • A ICEBERG – Adam's Penis Bone/Baculum
    • A ICEBERG – Against Our Better Judgment: l by Alison Weir
    • A ICEBERG – ALISON WEIR
    • A ICEBERG – AMAZON KINDLE BOOKS
    • A ICEBERG – ANCIENT EGYPTIAN GODS AND LAWS
    • A ICEBERG – ANCIENT GREEKS AND MYTH
    • A ICEBERG – ANCIENT LAWS AND THE 10 COMMANDMENT SIMILARITY
    • A ICEBERG – AZUSA STREET AND THE WELSH REVIVAL
    • A ICEBERG – BABYLON AND NINEVEH
    • A ICEBERG – BABYLONIANS AND HEBREWS
    • A ICEBERG – BIBLICAL CONTRADICTIONS
    • A ICEBERG – BILL ZEBUB
    • A ICEBERG – BOOKS TO READ
    • A ICEBERG – BRITISH EMPIRE
    • A ICEBERG – BULLSHIT – BELIEVING BULLSHIT ET AL
    • A ICEBERG – CANAAN/ISRAEL
    • A ICEBERG – CHRISTIAN ZIONISM/JEWISH ZIONISM
    • A ICEBERG – CHRISTIANITY REVEALED
    • A ICEBERG – CIRCUMCISION
    • a iceberg – Code of Hammurabi
    • A ICEBERG – CONSPIRACY THEORIES – TITANIC
    • A ICEBERG – CREATION OF ISRAEL AND THE REFORMATION
    • A ICEBERG – CROMWELL AND THE JEWS
    • A ICEBERG – DISPENSATION ISM
    • A ICEBERG – EDENS SERPENTS AND MYTHS
    • A ICEBERG – EDWARD IRVING
    • A ICEBERG – ELBA – ANCIENT CITY, SYRIA
    • A ICEBERG – EVANGELICALS TO BRING ABOUT THE NT APOCALYPSE
    • A ICEBERG – EVOLUTION
    • A ICEBERG – EXODUS
    • A ICEBERG – FALL OF MAN
    • A ICEBERG – FLOOD MYTHS
    • A ICEBERG – FRENCH REVOLUTION/ZIONISM
    • A ICEBERG – FROM THE EXODUS MYTH FACEBOOK
    • A ICEBERG – GENESIS
    • A ICEBERG – Genesis 1-11 and Its Mesopotamian Problem
    • A ICEBERG – GENESIS-LILITH
    • A ICEBERG – Genetic Roots of the Ashkenazi Jews
    • A ICEBERG – H.L. Mencken
    • A ICEBERG – HAMMURABI HIS LAWS AND HIS GODS
    • a iceberg – Heaven and Hell are not ancient Jewish and Christian ideas
    • A ICEBERG – Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions/Similarities
    • A ICEBERG – HECTOR AVALON
    • A ICEBERG – HOLOCAUST OF HUMANS NOT JUST JEWS
    • A ICEBERG – HOW AND WHY GOD EVOLVED
    • A ICEBERG – HOW THE BIBLE COPIED FROM OLDER STORIES
    • A ICEBERG – HOW USA CAME INTO WW1
    • a iceberg – human genocide
    • A ICEBERG – INVENTION OF THE HEBREW BIBLE
    • A ICEBERG – IS THE TORAH DIVINE
    • A ICEBERG – IS THE WORLD A FRIENDLY PLACE?
    • A ICEBERG – ISRAELI TERRORISM – CREATION OF ISRAEL AND 6 DAY WAR
    • A ICEBERG – JERICHO
    • A ICEBERG – JOHN NELSON DARBY
    • A ICEBERG – LAW
    • A ICEBERG – LIST OF BLOGS AND INFO
    • A ICEBERG – LLOYD GEORGE WW2
    • A ICEBERG – MAN MADE GODS
    • A ICEBERG – MEME
    • A ICEBERG – Michael David Magee
    • A ICEBERG – MISCELLANEOUS
    • A ICEBERG – MONTANISM
    • A ICEBERG – MOSES
    • A ICEBERG – MOSES VS SARGON
    • A ICEBERG – MOUNT SINAI AND THE LUNAR GOD SIN
    • A ICEBERG – MOUNT SINAI AND THE LUNAR GOD SIN
    • A ICEBERG – Nanna/Suen/Sin (god)
    • A ICEBERG – Napoleon and the Jews
    • A ICEBERG – NOAH AND THE FLOOD
    • A ICEBERG – ORIGINAL SIN
    • A ICEBERG – PALESTINE
    • A ICEBERG – PDF
    • A ICEBERG – Persistence of Myth
    • A ICEBERG – PIOUS FRAUD
    • A ICEBERG – Protocols of the Elders of Zion FACT OR FICTION
    • A ICEBERG – RABBINICAL JUDAISM
    • A ICEBERG – RED HEIFER
    • A ICEBERG – RED JOHNSON
    • A ICEBERG – REVIEW
    • A ICEBERG – SABBATH
    • A ICEBERG – SCOFIELD PRE MILL bs
    • A ICEBERG – SCRIBED
    • A ICEBERG – SIN
    • A ICEBERG – SIN DOES NOT EXIST
    • A ICEBERG – Stephen Sizer
    • A ICEBERG – Sumerian Influences on Western Religion
    • A ICEBERG – SUMERIAN LIFE AND BELIEFS
    • A ICEBERG – THE BIBLE IS NOT HISTORY
    • A ICEBERG – THE CHURCH OF TRUTH
    • A ICEBERG – THE CREATION OF GOD
    • A ICEBERG – THE GOD ENKI SUMERIAN
    • A ICEBERG – THE JEWISH PARASITE
    • A ICEBERG – THE MORAL ANIMAL BY ROBERT WRIGHT
    • A ICEBERG – THE PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT
    • A ICEBERG – UGANDA CHOSEN FOR THE JEWSS
    • A ICEBERG – Ugaritic story of Athtar
    • A ICEBERG – Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
    • A ICEBERG – Whitney Webb 5*+
    • A ICEBERG – WHY FARMING?
    • A ICEBERG – Why Humans Have No Penis Bone
    • A ICEBERG – WHY THE BIBLE CANNOT BE THE WORD OF GOD
    • A ICEBERG – WOODROW WILSON BRANDIS COL HOUSE SAMUEL UTTERMAYER
    • A ICEBERG – YAHWEH
    • A ICEBERG – ZIONISM AND CREATION OF ISRAEL
    • A ICEBERG -VICTORIAN HORROR STORIES
    • A ICEBERG 5*+
    • A iceberg Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind – Yuval Noah Harari
    • A ICEBERG SUMERIAN DICTIONARY GODS AND DEMONS…..
    • A ICEBERG-SINAI
    • A ICEBERG-Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
    • A ICEBURG – RECEPTION HISTORY
    • A ICELAND – FROM THE EXODUS MYTH FACEBOOK
    • A ICELAND – VIDEOS
    • A ICELBERG – AGAINST THE GRAIN JAMES SCOTT
    • Abraham
    • Abrahamic Religions
    • Afterlife?
    • AI ICEBERG – BOOKS TO READ
    • Alexander Heidel
    • Allah
    • Animal Sacrifice
    • Animals
    • Anthropomorphic
    • Anunnaki
    • Apocalypticism
    • Ark of the Covenant
    • ASSYRIOLOGY ITS USE AND ABUSE IN OLD TESTAMENT
    • Astrology 
    • Atheistism
    • Author Unknown
    • HUMAN GENOCIDE
  • Ancient Civilizations
    • Animal Sacrifices
    • Human Sarcrifice
  • Authors
    • Baron Paul Henri D'Holbach
    • Bart D. Ehrman
    • Colin Wilson
    • Eustace Mullins
    • Frank Moore Cross
    • G. W. Foote
    • Jason Long
    • John Byrne MD
    • Joseph Campbell
    • Joseph Wheless
    • Joshua J. Mark
    • Karl Marx and Communism
    • M. D. Aletheia
    • Marlene Winell
    • Matt (Blogger)
    • Mike Magee
    • Peter Dudink
    • Prof. Ze'ev Herzog
    • Richard Carrier
    • Richard Dawkins
    • Robert Cooper
    • Robert Green Ingersoll
      • Freethought
    • Saladin
    • Sam Harris
    • Samuel Noah Kramer
    • Scott Atran
    • Valerie Tarico.
    • Vexen Crabtree  
    • Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld y de la Torre
  • B to L Cat
    •  Conspiracy Theory
    • Ashkenazi
    • Babylon
    • Babylonian Legends of the Creation
    • Balfour Declaration
    • Belief in Belief
    • Belief Systems
    • Bible Archaeology
    • Bible Contradictions
    • Bible Inconsistencies
    • Biblical Myths
    • Biblical Nonsense
    • Birth of Civilisation
    • Black Race
    • Blood Sacrifice
    • Bolshevik Revolution
    • Bolshevism
    • Book Form
    • Books to Read
    • Bullshit
    • Canaanite Religion
    • Christianity
    • Christianity-Biggest Lie Ever Told
    • Circumcision
    • Code of Jewish Law is Called "HALACHA" (The Way)
    • Cognitive Dissonance
    • Collapse of Ancient Civilisation
    • Concept of Sin
    • Conspiracy
    • Constellation Legends
    • Contradictions in the Bible
    • Counsel of the Gods
    • Creation
    • Creation Myths
    • Creation of Israel
    • Cure from Religion – Judaism/Christianity/et al
    • David and Solomon – Kings of Israel
    • Did humans invent Gods?
    • Divine Number 12
    • Documentary Hypothesis
    • Does God Exist?
    • Doublethink
    • Egyptian Ancient
    • Elul
    • Empires
    • Epic of Gilgamesh
    • Evil God
    • evilbible.com
    • Evolution
    • Exodus
    • Exodus Did Not Happen
    • Fables
    • Free Will
    • Freemasonry
    • Genesis
    • God
    • God is Imaginary
    • God is Nonexistent
    • Gods of Ancient Egypt
    • Ham (Noah)
    • Hebrew Myths
    • Hermeticism
    • Hide and Seek God
    • Historical Deception
    • Historical Revisionism
    • History
    • History's Greatest Lies
    • Hitler
    • Hittite
    • Holocaust
    • Human Sacrifice
    • ICEBERG – Walter Reinhold Warttig Mattfeld
    • Iceberg – Zionism
    • ICEBERG – ZIONSIM
    • Illusion/Reality
    • In Gods We Trust
    • infidels.org
    • Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
    • Janus Parallelism
    • Jehovah
    • Jesus
    • Jewish Bullshit
    • Jewish law
    • Jews
    • Joshua
    • Judaism/Christianity/Islam
    • Judeo-Christian
    • Judeo/Christian god does not exist
    • Judiasm
    • Khazars
    • King David
    • King Saul
    • King Solomon
    • KJV
    • Kuzari Argument
    • Law
    • Laws of the Moral and Physical World
    • Leaving Religion
    • Link to Webpage
    • List of Books for Atheists/Agnostics/Free-Thinkers
    • Mass Revelation (Sinai, Fatima et al)
    • Pious Fraud and Lies
    • Racism
    • Sephardi
    • Solomon's Temple and its Cost
  • DESERT FABLE
  • M to Z
    • Bible Myths
    • Bible Parallels in Other Religions
    • Biblical Contradictions
    • Biblical Discrepancies
    • Books and Articles pdf
    • Breaking the Spell of Religion
    • Code of Law by Hammurabi
    • Colonel House
    • Creation Myths
    • Cyrus Scofield
    • El
    • Eustace Mullins
    • Evil
    • Exodus
    • Genesis
    • Gods/Goddesses
    • Hammurabi's Code and the Law of Moses
    • Israel
    • Israel
    • Man invented gods
    • Man invented religion
    • Memes
    • Mesopotamia
    • Mind Virus
    • Miscellaneous
    • Molech
    • Monotheism
    • Morality
    • Moses
    • Moses/Hitler
    • Myth of Sin
    • Myth of the Ten Lost Tribes
    • Myths
    • Nephilim
    • No Gods
    • No pork we're Jewish
    • Noah Flood
    • Noahide Laws
    • NWO
    • Old Testament
    • Old Testament/Torah/Tanach
    • Original Sin
    • Palestine
    • Parasites
    • Passover
    • Pdf
    • PDF articles
    • PDF Books
    • Persia
    • Personality Flaws Hide Behind Religion
    • Philosophy
    • Pictures (pic)
    • Plagiarise
    • Plato
    • Poetry and Verse
    • Psychology
    • Psychosis and Fanaticism
    • Pyramids
    • Quotations
    • Racism
    • Red Johnson
    • Red's anti-religious Rants
    • Red's Muse
    • Religion
    • Religion and Climate
    • Religion Exposed
    • Religion is a Man-made concept
    • Religion is used as an emotional hook to control
    • Religion Without God
    • Religious Lies
    • Religious Lies
    • Religious Trauma
    • Sabbath Origins
    • Samuel Untermyer
    • Satan/Devil/Old Nick Myth
    • Science and Morality
    • Science and Religion
    • Sea Peoples
    • Sicarii, or Dagger-men
    • Sin
    • Sinai
    • Sir Francis Bacon
    • Skepticism
    • Sky God(s)
    • Starred *
    • Storytelling and Fairy Tales
    • Sumerians
    • Summaries
    • Sun and Moon worship
    • Supernatural nonsense
    • Talmud
    • Terrorism
    • TGP
    • The "church" of Truth
    • The Bible Was Influenced By Other Religions
    • The Biggest Lie Ever Told
    • The Body of God
    • The Church of Truth
    • The First World War 1914-1918
    • The Foundations of Western Civilization
    • The Gilgamesh Epic
    • The God Hypothesis
    • The Impossible Voyage of Noah's Ark
    • The Jewish State/Israel
    • The Nonsense of Noah
    • The Philosophy of Horror
    • The Problem of Evil
    • The problem with Miracles
    • The Religion Virus
    • The Second World War – (1939-1945)
    • Theological Terrorism
    • There is no god
    • Timeline
    • Torah
      • The OT fabrication that the Israelite's were slaves in Egypt.
    • Torah – Biggest Lie Ever Told
    • Torah is Ahistorical
    • Ugarit
    • Videos
    • Violence/Bible
    • War
    • Western Civilisations
    • Western Philosophy
    • White Race
    • Why do Jews circumcise on the 8th day?
    • William Shakespeare
    • Winston Churchill
    • Wizard of Oz
    • Woodrow Wilson
    • Yahweh
    • Yahweh
    • YouTube
    • Zeitgeist
    • Zionism
    • Zootheism
    • Zoroaster
    • Zoroastrianism

© 2023 &middot From The Exodus To The Ridiculous