Free will and consciousness. [View all]
There is a subset of atheists who think that free will is an illusion. There are also some who think that consciousness is also an illusion. That just doesn't ring true to me in my experience, and it's a very inhumane outlook. It basically reduces humans to automatons. But this is my suspicion. Those are not the true beliefs of those who are writing books about it and promoting those beliefs. Free will is one of the central tenets of faith for many Christians, and consciousness is very important to followers of Buddhism and Hinduism as well as those who subscribe to New Age philosophy. To me, all this just seems like a very cynical attempt to undermine faith.
I was talking to a friend about this the other night who is knowledgeable about Christian denominations. To my surprise he said there are some Christians who also don't believe that we have free will. Calvinists, albeit not a large subset of Christians, subscribe to predetermination. I was also surprised to learn that Lutherans have a modified view in that regard. They think that we have free will in our day to day lives, but matters of salvation are predetermined.
It should also be noted that some atheists think that we have free will.
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