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But yes, it does. We are wholly a product of the mechanism, and are not "beyond" it.

I can see now you're joking. Imagine all the time we've wasted on this little discussion, and all of it just to tickle your funny bone! In all seriousness, you're suggesting we're responsible for any choice, even when it can be shown that the choice depended on one factor outside of our...

Why does one man choose for B to influence him and another choose A? Then you have to concede, you do believe there are people who, for no reason at all, make bad choices, and others who for no reason at all make good choices? Why? You believe rapists live in a different society than you? Do...

That is not empirical evidence for choice to change, merely change. This entire argument boils down to a very simple mechanism; in any choice, there are factors brought to us by the nature of the choice, and there is who we are. We are one factor, outside of us are other factors. For there to be...

1+1 will always = 2, and never three. Where do you suppose our capacity for language, our capacity to develop to such an advanced, artificial stage as we have, comes from? Our genetic makeup is responsible, wholly, for what we (as a species) are capable of. If we are able to manipulate our...

And if Tim chooses to not decide because he's emotionally distressed at the time of the decision because his wife has just been in a horrible car accident, he's solely and completely responsible for his decision to not choose? Despite that if his wife hadn't been in the accident, he would've...

1.Quite appropriate. Absolutes do tend to indicate an error in reasoning. Not in this case though. Where does our voluntary control come from? When we choose to do avoid thought X and cultivate thought Y, it is voluntary. I agree. However, what is the origin of our will to do one instead of the...

The bold is the bit at issue. Is one responsible for not choosing to change one's pattern of behavior when THAT choice is determined by experiences beyond one's control?

We're obviously on very different pages. Where are you getting this nonsense about mountains of evidence, political convenience and research? I am not asserting that genetics decide all. I am asserting that no being is capable of actual choice because every choice made is decided by myriad...

1. Is something false simply because we don't like its implications? 2. It's not even as simple as a nature/nurture question. While certainly we are products of both biology and experience, we are not the master of either. Is a choice free simply because your decision wasn't primarily...

The issue at hand is that you may be solely the product of external/internal (genetic/biological) influences. If you don't have control over the content of your character (which you don't; any character-forming decision you might contend lies in your past would also be subject to what made "you"...

Anil, though thorough, I must say your post seems quite inappropriate. The question asked concerns the gods of Shintoism, and is therefore asking for responses of the Shinto persuasion; your world-view and your ideas concerning (G/g)od(s) do not qualify.

A Prime Minister, in the general sense, is a public servant, not a Monarch unto whom great respect is owed. A PM is really only superior to anyone in the sense that their general relevance is to a greater audience than that of the average Joe.

(Emphasis mine.) You've made my argument for me. "If you had, if you were," Not, "If you had chosen to have, if you had chosen to be" If you don't [choose] the personal qualities and experience that prompt your decision of X over Y, you don't [choose] X over Y. If any aspect of your...

Essentially, yes. Within an Abrahamic context ('tis the section, after all), a lack of free would throw God's nature into serious question.

From whence would come the motivation to "rebel" against one's genetic dispositions, or external programming? Would you choose to feel like rebelling against your inclinations, or would your motivation to rebel against perceived inclinations itself be an inclination over which you had no...

I don't think it's a very sensible position, although it is friendly sounding and nice to think about. I think too often we look at peoples' glances skyward as indicative of their worship of the same, one divine, and ignore their claims regarding the divine. Is Jehovah, the god who favored...