Issue that is itching my brain...

[P3nT4gR4m]

Did you mean messiah, or is messia Scottish for "gaywad".

I'll accept messiah.
Or gaywad.
Whatever I can get.

Scottish for gaywad is 'cunt'

In fact most scottish abuses come down to either 'cunt' 'fucker' or 'prick' or combinations thereof.

We're not very imaginative and we like to keep it short so we're not wasting good fighting time expounding litanies of verbal abuse.

[hunter s.durden]

i think it's a lollercaust how we don't have free will but then we can't prove causation either

So you think it's a fact we have no free will?

[Cramulus]

I'm in the determinist camp. I believe free will is an illusion, but a necessary illusion.




ultimately it's a moot point though because my behavior isn't going to change based on whether or not I perceive I have free will



Have you read Shrodinger's Cat trilogy, Perineal? Free will vs determinism is one of the themes, sort of. As I recall, in classic Wilson style, the character concludes that they both sort of exist simultaneously.

[Lies]

"If it is your destiny to be great, then it will happen no matter what you do.
If it is your destiny to be a nobody, then it will happen no watter what you do. 
So do all the things you think your destiny will lead you, and will find out.
Along the path, always keep in mind, this is your destiny, and endure it with a smile as much as possible, and it will not matter whether you are great or a no one.
It doesn't matter as long as you had fun."

-PFFN

[The Littlest Ubermensch]

In fact most scottish abuses come down to either 'cunt' 'fucker' or 'prick' or combinations thereof.

We're not very imaginative and we like to keep it short so we're not wasting good fighting time expounding litanies of verbal abuse.

This is why the US has more gun violence than other industrialized nations. We have a language suited for cussing people out. Thus instead of small brawls, we have two people that get so angry after the torrents of verbal abuse they shoot each other.

[P3nT4gR4m]

In fact most scottish abuses come down to either 'cunt' 'fucker' or 'prick' or combinations thereof.

We're not very imaginative and we like to keep it short so we're not wasting good fighting time expounding litanies of verbal abuse.

This is why the US has more gun violence than other industrialized nations. We have a language suited for cussing people out. Thus instead of small brawls, we have two people that get so angry after the torrents of verbal abuse they shoot each other.

I suppose the fact that everybody in the us is carrying a gun has absolutely no bearing on the issue?

Outside of the US it's glaringly obvious - You have this dumbass 'constitution' religion thing that states all men, most women and about half the children and animals are allowed to own a gun so that, in the event of a police state, they're allowed to shoot the president.

For some reason no one in america seems to get this. If no one has a gun then there is no gun crime. If you don't believe me look at the statistics for high power armour piercing laser crime. Now walk into your local fishmonger or grade school stationery store or wherever else you people go when you need to protect your constitutional right in a hurry and see how many of these laser devices are on offer.

QED - People don't shoot people. People + guns do.

[The Littlest Ubermensch]

In fact most scottish abuses come down to either 'cunt' 'fucker' or 'prick' or combinations thereof.

We're not very imaginative and we like to keep it short so we're not wasting good fighting time expounding litanies of verbal abuse.

This is why the US has more gun violence than other industrialized nations. We have a language suited for cussing people out. Thus instead of small brawls, we have two people that get so angry after the torrents of verbal abuse they shoot each other.

I suppose the fact that everybody in the us is carrying a gun has absolutely no bearing on the issue?

Outside of the US it's glaringly obvious - You have this dumbass 'constitution' religion thing that states all men, most women and about half the children and animals are allowed to own a gun so that, in the event of a police state, they're allowed to shoot the president.

For some reason no one in america seems to get this. If no one has a gun then there is no gun crime. If you don't believe me look at the statistics for high power armour piercing laser crime. Now walk into your local fishmonger or grade school stationery store or wherever else you people go when you need to protect your constitutional right in a hurry and see how many of these laser devices are on offer.

QED - People don't shoot people. People + guns do.

That too. 

[tyrannosaurus vex]

actually... concerning profanity...

it is our overuse of profanity that leads to violence. because we use the most vulgar words in our language when we're not even the slightest bit perturbed, to refer to mundane things, profanity is no longer able to convey extreme emotions, which is what it's supposed to be there for.

hence, when we really do get pissed off, we have to resort to violence to illustrate how emo we feel.

this is all bullshit.

[Sir Perineal]

i think it's a lollercaust how we don't have free will but then we can't prove causation either

So you think it's a fact we have no free will?

If facts are based on experience, then I guess it is, considering what modern scientific study has told us about the human being.

Either way, it doesn't seem to effect everyday life, because as Prof. Cram said, it appears to be a necessary illusion.

But I probably consider myself a "compatibilist" when it comes to free will, i.e. "free will," if redefined as more of a hypothetical freedom, might fit into the scheme of determinism.

[Triple Zero]

.. and i would personally consider the non-existance of free will, as hypothetical. because to me it seems that, however much determinism (meaning, physics for non-complex/small scale systems) as we currently know it seems to deny its existance, our knowledge about how all these complicated physical and chemical systems work is still limited. please note that the science of physics is already some hundreds of years old, where the science of artificial intelligence has existed for only a few decennia.
there is one crucial tool that is needed for research into the working of complex systems and that is the computer. this tool has existed only for half a century.
i think the last hasn't been said on this subject

on the one hand we can say there seems to be an illusion of free will. on the other hand we can say there seems to be an illusion of the impossibility of free will.

if i'm gonna be completely honest with myself, my guess is that the answer is in fact a combination of these two. similar (but definitely not analogous ) to how light can act as a particle and a wave depending on how you look at it, i think you can treat free will as an illusory non-existant thing if you look at the low-level deterministic physics and chemistry, but as a very real (yet intangible) concept when you look at the higher-level symbols, signs and meanings.
and both ways of looking at it are in fact equally valid, however our technological level is not yet high enough that we can make a continous description from the one to the other (because the science of complex systems is still a lot of interesting, unchartered territory)

[LMNO]

It doesn't really matter to me if Free Will exists.

To me, it's more important to act as if you have free will, because it seems better than the submissive alternative.

[hunter s.durden]

I used to be for guns, but since the state pretty much thinks I am insane and won't let me have one, i'm against them.

Fuck guns.

[Triple Zero]

better yet, pretend you have MORE free will than you ACTUALLY have

[LMNO]

Good one, TZ.

[Lies]

If destiny really does exist, and free will doesn't, then isn't it a bit of a mind fuck that destiny is making us debate about free wills existance?