01-28-2011, 01:40 PM
It took me a while to decide what to say about your post. In regards to your first scenario I tend to think that by being aware it is a part of our nature to add to or affect our situations in some way. So even in the absence of anything from which to build from we would at least imagine something, thought what that would be I can't say.
In your second senario you talk about our self being a collection of all that we have been through. I tend to think that this is partially correct. There is also what we have done with what we have been through. This again goes back to our nature as not only that which expereinces reality but as that which also shapes reality.
This sort of leads into the third thing you talked about which was about the choices we make. Without the ability to make choices, to do thing other than what would happen, we wouldn't really be alive and aware. We would only be machines. That I think is why free will is so important. That which reduces our free will takes away from what makes us alive and aware and that which expands our will allows us to grow.
In your second senario you talk about our self being a collection of all that we have been through. I tend to think that this is partially correct. There is also what we have done with what we have been through. This again goes back to our nature as not only that which expereinces reality but as that which also shapes reality.
This sort of leads into the third thing you talked about which was about the choices we make. Without the ability to make choices, to do thing other than what would happen, we wouldn't really be alive and aware. We would only be machines. That I think is why free will is so important. That which reduces our free will takes away from what makes us alive and aware and that which expands our will allows us to grow.