The Arguing Atheist
Home | Argument Start | Random | Book | Map | Contact/Comment
You: But a natural process can be unpredictable. The weather is not predictable, and it is certainly the result of natural processes.
Aaron: We can make attempts to predict the weather.
You: We can make attempts to predict people's actions, too.
Aaron: What I mean is that with enough information, one could predict the weather.
You: Chaos theory says that we could never get enough information.
Aaron: But if we could...
You: With enough information, perhaps we could predict human actions in the same way.
Aaron: Nonsense. People have free will. They are not bound by any natural process.
You: Since we can never predict where a hurricane will turn, should we say that it has free will?
Aaron: That is ridiculous. If we had enough information we could predict the actions of a hurricane. The human soul, that which endows us with free will, is not bound by natural law. That is the difference.
You: That is no difference at all. So far as I know, people are nothing but mechanical things. Your concept of a soul seems like nothing but an excuse for not being able to predict the behavior of people.
Aaron: You cannot really believe that a person is as simple as a windstorm, now can you?
You: You cannot really believe that the supernatural needs to be invoked to explain human action, now can you?
Aaron: This is infuriating! You are mocking me and nothing more!