Glenn:
I'll just respond to part of your post to keep things simple.
You wrote, in part, "You really need to go back and look at what I say
about freedom and
necessity in F^3 and what I have said here many, many times. Just a month
ago I responded to one of your comments that freewill and determinism are
antithetical. You must not have seen it as you didn't reply."
Apologies for that. My Juno email service began to exhibit strange (free
will?)
characteristics, and I finally dropped off it -- probably losing some
messages in
the process.
You continue: "Here is a rewrite of it. In order to advance the
conversation you need to respond to my points in this regard rather than
making the same statement again. Both
freewill and God's foreknowledge are perfectly compatible as is illustrated
by the mathematical object known as Sierpinski's Gasket,... "
OK, I'll respond to this one. Your gasket example is a clever, and even
interesting, little
computer exercise. What it has to do with the issue, however, IMHO, is zip.
I see you using the word "preprogrammed" in a less than rigorious way.
I am "preprogrammed" in my present corpus to be constrained by the
laws of gravity. If thats all you mean by the word, so be it. It is a 50c
word
where a 5c word will do.
I am glad you have all this stuff worked out so well. I am not
in such a fortunate (?) position myself.
You write later, " After 20,000 iterations it will produce the pattern seen
at
http://home.flash.net/~mortongr/sier.gif
Thus the dot may feel perfectly free--indeed it is perfectly free-- but it
is confined to a particular pattern."
Really? Or just in the (finite) number of times you've tried it?
What about the 1 in 3**20,000 times when "chance" comes up with
exactly the same answer on each iteration? That will happen, you know.
I find the scriptures obscure on the subject of determinism. Certainly SOME
things seem to be determined, but not most things. Did Pharoh have a choice
in his
debates with Moses? I think so -- at least up to a point -- then "God
hardened
his heart." (He had previously "hardened his heart himself).
Did Judas have a choice? Is it possible, if not, that he had a chance to
repent? Was his actions predetermined from the beginning of humanity?
Always appreciate jousting with you. The time will come when we both
understand how wrong we both are!
Burgy
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