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You can't have it as simple as you want, Ed.    I'm sorry, but you asked about my proposition concerning free will and that, as I've explained earlier, is based upon what the apostle Paul says in the Bible.  Because I'm playing Devil's Advocate I'm arguing from Paul's position - not my own.  His position IS a religious one.  So, if you want me to explain my proposition to you, it has to be done on his terms.  Not yours and not mine, but Paul's.   His position is that we are, in effect, physically bound by god because we have first been spiritually bound by him.  This is because he believed that humans are both physical and spiritual, with the spiritual ruling the physical.  And for him, a physical human body without a spirit was just a corpse.  We can see this in his own words, when he compare Adam with Jesus.   1 Corinthian 15 : 44 - 47.   If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.  46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.  47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven.   In verse 45 Paul is referring back to Genesis 2 : 7.   Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.   When god created Adam he was physically complete but just an empty shell until god breathed the spirit of life into him.  Without an animating spirit he was nothing but a corpse.  By understanding this we can see what Paul means about god putting us all into spiritual bondage.     If our spirits are bound into a state of disobedience by god then our bodies, which obey the dictates of our spirits, are just as bound.  Nothing visible and nothing tangible can be seen or detected.  There are no physical chains binding us.  But we are just as bound as if there were.     I hope this makes sense.  Please let me know if anything is difficult or confusing and I will try and rectify that.     Thank you,   Walter.                        

Dr. Gary Slutkin:      Here's a link to the full article:    “Brain flaws”: Understanding MAGA as an epidemic disease | Salon.com    

Here's what our tax dollars go toward: educating our children about the Constitution (and PBS):  (for those of you who can read) 😉   https://www.salon.com/2024/10/13/citizen-nation-shows-theres-hope-for-democracy-and-our-future-in-championing-civics-in-schools/    

Ouch that has to hurt a little lol

Free will, thx.

I am free to decline your inquiry. 😘

And why are you chiming in after all these years Dave.  

Well, you got it right the first time Dave....we are constrained physically. But then your top intellectual chimes in with, that we are free in any other aspect.     So then I ask what aspect Walt.  Then he goes into some dive into Christianity and it's only in that context...then we get lost in Walt's question and answer session.   So if you'd like to play given you're the captain...   Even though we are physically constrained, are we bound mentally.  Are we capable of absolute thinking.   Thanks.

I was being purposefully pedantic, (to be constrained implies the possibility of having those  constraints removed) in order to see if 1) Ed would show the slightest willingness to understand my pedantic point, 2) to what lengths Ed would go to defend his eccentric positions, and 3), if after an  obvious  provocation, in the spirit of Christian love he would refrain from ad hominems.    This commercial break is now over. Please continue the show!