SeekingUnderstanding

You mean the one where Latter-day Saints gave time and money and basically led the charge to Successfully remove gay people’s civil right to marry? Who exactly was persecuting who there?

why doesn’t the comet have free will? How do you define free will? I’m not sure what you think Naturalists mean when they say that free will is an illusion, but all they mean is that the future is determinable (outside of some potential quantum randomness depending on ones alignment there). That is, if someone knew everything, including all the relevant laws of nature, and had the necessary computing power, they could predict your action. In your case this individual is God. ETA - I’m derailing the OP here, so I will let you have the last word if you want and drop it on this

If you can surprise God, then God doesn’t know what you will do with 100 percent certainty, can’t predict the future, and you can keep your libertarian free will.

That’s because I’m not arguing for the position that God makes anyone do anything. Free will doesn’t hinge on whether or not God forces us to act, it hinges on whether or not we could have acted differently. If God (using what he knows of the laws of the universe as well as the present state of the universe) can predict with 100 percent certainty what each and everyone of us will do, in what sense could we have chosen otherwise? In this case, clearly we are all just following the predetermined laws of the universe which are (apparently) known to God.

Knowledge doesn’t determine the future. But if I can determine the future based on the present state of the world, in what sense is the future not determined? How do you define free will? I’m working from the position that any meaningful definition of free will must include the ability of an agent to have done/chosen otherwise. If an entity can predict with 100 percent certainty what I will choose or do, in what sense could I have chosen otherwise? Consider a comet falling through space. If I know it’s center of mass and momentum, as well as the center of mass and momentum of oth

Aside from preventing future crime from that individual, jail serves as a deterrent even in a deterministic world view. Fewer people will commit crimes if they know there will be significant consequences for their actions.

Sure. For Latter-day Saints, God didn’t create our “intelligence” and is this not responsible for our actions. That said, if God can predict the future, then the future is determined. This negates libertarian free will and leaves you as a compatibilist.

If you believe in a God that knows the end from the beginning, a God that can tell you which path will be best for your life, a God that knows you so well that He can predict what you will choose than at most you are a compatibilist. If someone can know you well enough to predict your future decisions, that person is the equivalent of Laplace’s demon in a deterministic universe

never mind. Point already made by others.

I went to a David Copperfield show that ended with a UFO being transported into the theater. I have no idea how he did that or any number of other things. I’ve searched online for explanations, and no one can provide the exact method of how he did the things he did. None the less I stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the straight forward “true” answer that it was magic.

Early Modern English. Shakespeare for example wrote in EModE.

My brother-in-law works for google, and they have this down. Dedicated nap rooms, not to mention the movie theaters, game rooms, and all the free food.

I appreciate your thoughts. The only thing I would add is that America's history of racism has had a HUGE influence on modern black culture.

You won't get any rebuke from me. If we took real steps to attack poverty and provide real equal opportunity for all (not equal outcomes) I think we would be in a much better place as a country. I'd say more but it would get political so I'll leave it there.

What is obvious to me and apparently opaque to you is that it is impossible to understand race relations today without acknowledging past wrongs (even if we aren't responsible for those wrongs). I don't get what is hard to understand about this. I would be a different person if I was raised in a different environment. Is there nothing about the way that you were raised that shaped you as a person? Is there nothing about the way you were raised that still shapes how you raise your children today? If we studied the prosperity of the average black American compared to the average whit