Absolute Determinism: May the Force be with You

Many people believe in determinism – not just determinism, but “hard” determinism (I’ll call it by its more descriptive name, absolute determinism). They claim that absolutely everything, including our acts and thoughts, has been predetermined ever since the Big Bang (Prime Mover). Their belief is based on the universal, cascading, chain reaction of cause and effect as defined by the laws of physics. With their belief that the laws of physics are on their side, determinists can be downright dogmatic. Debating them can be like debating fundamentalist Christians or Muslims. They often treat their opinions as fact and are dismissive and derisive of other opinions: just as all fundamentalists are. Too many hard determinists appear to have knee-jerk reactions provoked by the mere assertion of a contrary opinion. Absolutes and fundamentalism go hand in hand, it seems.

In science, a hypothesis or theory is scientific only if it is “falsifiable”. This doesn’t mean it’s false; just that if it is, it can be revealed as such. Outside the quantum realm, determinism is NOT falsifiable. It is therefore relegated to philosophy but, of course, may find support in scientific arguments. The laws of physics surely provide argument for determinism but those laws do not extend beyond the physical realm. For instance; life, consciousness and intelligence are dependent on physical bodies but are not, themselves, physical. They’re abstractions – projections – without any physical properties of any kind. Trying to extend the laws of physics into this abstract realm is just not legitimate.

The unique, animate, nature of life marks a radical departure from the strictly inanimate nature of the physical universe which preceded it by many billions of years. Relatively speaking, life made its appearance very recently and human intelligence arose just a virtual heartbeat ago. This represents a dramatic development in the history of the universe.

Not ALL physics lend support to determinism. Quantum theory is the most precise model of physics man has ever devised and is the vanguard of modern physics. It’s a theory imbued with randomness and uncertainty. This doesn’t negate determinism but it does blow absolute determinism out of the water. As an indeterministic model of random, unpredictable events, quantum theory demonstrates that there are other modes of existence compatible with determinism. Thus, absolute determinism does not extend to everything, everywhere, all the time and is absolutely falsified by quantum theory.

Outside the quantum realm, determinism, given the above considerations, then becomes a model of physical causality that describes the interactions of inanimate matter. This model provides predictability, in perpetuity, unless interfered with by “free agents”. You guessed it -- we are the free agents.

Though springing from the human brain, human intelligence directs and, to large measure, controls the brain via a “feedback loop”. This synergistic symbiosis is revealed by many of our “higher” mental activities, such as: memorization, learning, invention and creativity. For instance, we can choose to read a poem or to memorize it. If we choose to make the conscious effort to memorize it, we may not know which modules of the brain has stored that poem but we do know we can recall it at will and without external prompting. That is the feedback mechanism that provides us free agency.

Another essential component of free agency is motility: the ability to move about on our own. This is also another feature that obviously separates us (and other animals) from the inanimate matter that otherwise constitutes the universe. Like quantum randomness, free agency also demonstrates another mode of existence distinct from, yet compatible with, determinism.

Living beings react differently than inanimate things. Above the quantum level, cause and effect has only one predictable outcome for inanimate objects (like billiard balls). However, cause and effect (stimuli) can have unpredictable outcomes for living beings. Hit a billiard ball on the right side and it will move left, every time. Hit a worm on the right side and it might recoil, or it might move left, right, forward, back or whatever. Did the worm react to stimuli? Of course. Was it's reaction necessarily predictable or predetermined? No.

Life introduces capricious reactions distinctly different from the predictable reactions of inanimate objects. Motility is a feature that enables animals to choose a reaction that is not predetermined in the way the reactions of billiard balls are.

Life is an entirely new mode of response to physical cause and effect -- even if that life is just a worm. That mode of response grows more expansive as we move up the evolutionary ladder from reptiles to mammals to man. With human intelligence, we are able to observe, learn from, and use causality to our own advantage. We use physical laws to power our civilization and probe the solar system. We change the landscape and freely interfere with causality (sometimes to detrimental effect). We can change the course of rivers, history and even meteors.

It is childishly simplistic to suggest that the creations of Boeing, NASA, Rembrandt, Mozart, Robert Frost, etc., are chance occurrences absolutely determined by cause and effect, without benefit of freewill. Take, for instance, the pinnacle of man’s accomplishments: man on the moon. If you believe in absolute determinism -- that everything, from moment to moment, from beginning to end, has been scripted ever since the Big Bang -- then all the effort and resources that went into putting man on the moon describes a mystical, cosmic, script so precise that you might as well say God wrote it (“May the force be with you”). I guess coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.

Yes, cause and effect influences us. But not absolutely and not to the exclusion of freewill. The universe will eventually fade out or collapse into the Big Crunch. Any interference we, as free agents, exert on events will not make a real difference in the grand scheme of things.

While we may not be significant, we are nonetheless special.

© Jim Ashby, AtheistExile.com "You may say I'm a dreamer . . ."