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Nobody can possibly know what, if any, evidence could be adduced about the universe from outside the universe. Nobody can possibly know what it would be like to view the universe from outside the universe. Nor, for that matter , is there necessarily such a thing as "outside the universe" --...

All good on the full post from which I pulled your last statement. When I began reading the last sentence (quoted above), I thought you were going somewhere else: Stay Well

Steve, I previously provided my explanation of the claimed connection between Buddhism and determinism, along with citation to the Repetti article. It is post Number 1,133 in this thread, which is addressed to you and posted at 8:25 p.m. three days ago. You can read it at...

Still not sure I agree about there being a contradiction. The posited contradiction is that (i) the universe is, in fact, fatalistic, and (ii) a person within that fatalistic universe believes there is value in believing in a fatalistic universe. In a truly fatalistic universe, every seeming...

Do you believe that anything (including a principle, law of nature, concept, etc.) is true, unqualified, and absolute (other than the impossibility of something being true, unqualified, and absolute)? It seems to me that you do not have such a belief, but I could easily be mistaken. If you do...

Agree that there could be value in a belief in determinism, Jesus, and other philosophical or religious beliefs. Disagree that a belief in Radical Fatalism would be a contradiction if Radical Fatalism were true. It would not be a contradiction so much as a meaningless consequence of the...

Not arguing with anything you wrote. Just providing some citations to the scholarship you have requested. Repetti, R. ( 2012). Buddhist Hard Determinism: No Self, No Free Will, No Responsibility. Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 19 (April 19, 2012), 130-97. Repetti is a Professor of Philosophy at...

As a practical matter, I agree with you. But this is a Philosophy forum -- as designated by the board heading. Occam's Razor is a pragmatic tool that is not a part of formal method of proof or falsification in logical, math, science or otherwise. It is like the medical aphorism "When you hear...

It would be very cool to get beer volcanoes from the Flying Spaghetti Monster after we die. That is a very imaginary hypothesis, which is non-falsifiable unless and until we are able to verify what, if anything, actually occurs after death -- and even then it would be non-falsifiable if death...

I will begin by answering your closing question, and then address you prior assertions. Closing question: I cannot answer yes or no. My answer is "I do not know," and I have not previously asserted otherwise. Recall that I entered this discussion simply to join DBT's assertion of the...

Unless and until I learn otherwise, I understand solipsism to be non-falsifiable, which is why it is rejected by science, as a tenet of science is that a hypothesis will not be accepted as being even potentially scientific if it is incapable of falsification. Thus, if I use science as the...

I don't know how many times and how many ways I have to say this -- I am not advocating, much less preaching, that Radical Fatalism is an accurate statement about the operation of the universe. I have even acknowledged that there can be no possible proof of that fact -- just as you say, and I...

Solipsism also is possibly correct. The universe could me be, you, or someone else. Or nobody at all. As I have written to others, if you find a concept to be useless, you need not engage. Science is, itself, a paradigm that has no more or less claim to reality than does Solipsism, Radical...

I don't have you on ignore. I simply find it to be a waste of time to engage with someone who repeatedly asserts the same thing, and also tends to be insulting, without attempting to engage and refine the analysis in a mature manner. One last time, and I truly do welcome a serious response, it...

Therein lies the issue. The fact that a proposition flies in the face of your foundational belief does not make it absurd. I am not the first person to advance the possibility of a form of Determinism that is akin to what Jarhyn calls Radical Fatalism -- a possibility that is neither...

Steve, as I have said to some others, we are in violent agreement. I agree with the salient points of what you have just written, and I never suggested, or intended to suggest, otherwise in any of my many posts. I don't, however, know about Arnold's powers, but I am willing to take your word...

You are 100% correct about that. Well, actually, you can argue a determinism / lack of free will defense, but the Judge will disagree as a legal matter without regard to whether you are factually correct. Interestingly, although lack of free will has been used mainly with respect to the...

Most of the practical things you enjoy today are the product of people in history devoting uncounted hours over the course of multiple generations exploring concepts that were thought to be impractical (and even heretical). Much of that time led to nowhere -- at least as of today. Much of it...

I don't believe you are suggesting this, but to be clear, does that mean that a person who is hypnotized is acting of their own free will when they do what they have been directed to do, so long as they do not understand themselves to be operating under the compulsion of a post hypnotic...

I have a high degree of confidence that the things of which you are sure (which I take to be synonymous with certain) are probable to occur. Leaving aside the consequences of the possibility of destiny and fate (which are possible and beyond the ability of humans to know one way or the other)...