12-15-2009, 03:48 AM
Perhaps a paradox is in order. 
thefool, my friend, perhaps you are trying to get your head around a most fundamental paradox in our reality - that of free will. If you are not satisfied with realizing that free will fundamentally cannot be understood, and that you decide what it is for yourself, then none can help you but you.
Paradoxes of Freedom: 1. If all had freedom, one individual part of all is free to remove another's freedom, and as such there is no freedom while all has freedom.
This leads to 2. To exist is an infringement on freedom, yet one has to exist to acquire it as freedom denies the possibility of non-existence where there is no freedom.
Leads to 3. The moment you realize that freedom does not matter, and that the feelings which causes this 'lack of freedom' can be denied, then you will be truly free, to do whatever you wish and feel whatever you wish. And yet, the decision itself was part of freedom.
So I don't know what free will is. If one is all and all is one, then we all decide together but also decide for ourselves.
The rational mind doesn't like that stuff! Spiritually speaking, it is almost inert. To argue with a person lost in rationality is not a worthwhile endeavor in my eyes. Rationality is a religion in itself where logic is the Creator and god.
My advise is, look past the rational paradoxes in whatever way you chose. Some stuff makes sense once you realize that they're not meant to make sense

thefool, my friend, perhaps you are trying to get your head around a most fundamental paradox in our reality - that of free will. If you are not satisfied with realizing that free will fundamentally cannot be understood, and that you decide what it is for yourself, then none can help you but you.
Paradoxes of Freedom: 1. If all had freedom, one individual part of all is free to remove another's freedom, and as such there is no freedom while all has freedom.
This leads to 2. To exist is an infringement on freedom, yet one has to exist to acquire it as freedom denies the possibility of non-existence where there is no freedom.
Leads to 3. The moment you realize that freedom does not matter, and that the feelings which causes this 'lack of freedom' can be denied, then you will be truly free, to do whatever you wish and feel whatever you wish. And yet, the decision itself was part of freedom.
So I don't know what free will is. If one is all and all is one, then we all decide together but also decide for ourselves.
The rational mind doesn't like that stuff! Spiritually speaking, it is almost inert. To argue with a person lost in rationality is not a worthwhile endeavor in my eyes. Rationality is a religion in itself where logic is the Creator and god.
My advise is, look past the rational paradoxes in whatever way you chose. Some stuff makes sense once you realize that they're not meant to make sense