aka. Hard Determinism
Hard determinism, on the other hand, is a baby only its mother could love! What will be, will be; not regardless of what preceded, but because of what preceded. Our path is determined for us. Many envision puppets on strings. Others take the fatalist’s path and wonder, why bother trying. For the greater part, in the minds of most, hard determinism is synonymous with shackles, prison walls, enslavement, Marxism, slothfulness, unrestrained passions and hopelessness. Many believe hard determinism to be the antithesis of true spirituality. Seems a whole lot of swampland in Florida or real estate on Mars should be in the possession of hard determinists. If they’ll buy the tenets of hard determinism, what won’t they buy? Any way you look at it, hard determinism is a hard sell. But, remember the old saying: Ugly in the cradle, lovely at the table. We teach our children to look beneath the surface. Another saying: Don’t judge a book by its cover.
I have often played the devil’s advocate trying to discover where the source of this free-willian choice dynamic might be hiding. As hard as I have searched, I have not been able to attach it to an external source. It must be internal. The only organ within protoplasmic organisms which offered any options is the brain; the thinking and reasoning portions. Choice would require a manipulation of received knowledge. This manipulation could only occur in the brain. The most obvious brain function in which this ability to choose could reside is the part that is responsible for consciousness, or, what has come to be referred to as our conscience. Yet, even consciousness is a physiological, physics based function, as is reasoning. Anyone who has read the recent series of articles regarding brain research in Time magazine is well aware of the physiological nature of brain function. Even the brain with all of its precisioned intricacies is securely ensconced within the mathematic laws of physics given meaning through the cause and effect continuum principle which is the all encompassing and uncompromising tenet of hard determinism. The brain is not a whimsical, choice riddled organ. Its ability to function is critically dependent on the categorical consistency of every particle of mass, every joule of energy, within its domain. The brain, being free-will’s last sanctuary, is spelling the demise of any free-will oasis. On the other hand, cutting edge brain research is continually placing its currency in hard determinism’s blue chip mutual fund.
Not easily seen with a quick, superficial glance, inherent in the free-will philosophy is a substantial pile of sadomasochistic machinery. At the same time and just as difficult to see, hard determinism offers a good deal of freedom! Except for those who never stumble or are introspectively unaware, free-will is a reservoir of guilt, shame, embarrassment, culpability, divisiveness, inequalities, discontent, self-rejection and a whole host of degrading and subjugating markers. Society has done its best to turn the sow’s ear into a silk purse by using these markers to corral a restless populace, but after thousands of years, I’m afraid it is plain to those who will see: Free-will is still a sow’s ear. What appears to provide freedom, enslaves, and the ones who innately understand the emotional energy free-will’s roiling reservoir represents, are the masters of those who don’t.
Many, when exposed to such thinking, will respond, “But if hard determinism is the rule of the land, then this is just the way it was suppose to happen. I have no choice but to believe in free-will.” And, they are right. The totality of universal experience has determined the free-will paradigm will pretty much rule at this point in time. But, the soup is simmering. The interaction of mass and energy are constantly creating, blending, mixing and matching. Knowledge, ideas, concepts, understanding, Truth, Wisdom, Beauty and Love; these are forces with incredible potential for social edification whether from a free-will or a deterministic perspective. That the tenets of hard determinism have placed these edifying forces within its foundations is indicative of an underlying benevolence. That the tenets of free-will advertise these edifying forces from the roof top and electrified marques while concealing insubstantial foundations suggests an intellectual dishonesty rooted in a universal conflict of interest.
In place of free-will’s reservoir of condemnation, divisiveness and self-rejection, hard determinism offers a reservoir of unconditional acceptance and the potential for unconditional Love. No condemnation. No self-flagellation. No reason to castigate your neighbor or be castigated by your neighbor. It sounds good. What’s the trick?
The trick begins with a thorough examination of the evidence. Opinion isn’t worthless, but factual data demands considerable more respect. This is a tough step not so much because of a lack of evidence, but because our emotions are so powerful and somewhere in that head of ours, we know, if we accept the hard determinist’s paradigm, we are going to have to toss out a whole lot of garbage that we have become rather fond of. And beyond that, when we label something garbage that another person labels sacred, feelings are going to be hurt, relationships are going to be strained, and we silently wonder: Is it worth all that? It cannot be maximized. No matter how big a step you think it is, it’s probably bigger. It will test your adulthood. It will test your commitment to empiricism and spirituality.
