<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>On Nov 19, 2016, at 10:29 AM, William Flynn Wallace <<a href="mailto:foozler83@gmail.com">foozler83@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:27.2px"><font size="4"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">I suspect, without any evidence at all, that it comes from Christianity. If we are always doing God's will because that's the way God set it up, then there is no room for sin, and sin is the basis of the religion: Adam and Eve sinned and it has to be their choice or there is no justification for eviction from Eden.</div></font></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>This wouldn't explain how pre-Christians had ideas about free will, including folks like Aristotle.</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:27.2px"><font size="4"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">Add to it the doctrine that their sin infected every single human since, and we have original sin; ergo, babies are born lacking a state of grace (necessary to go to heaven) and must be saved </div></font><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:large"> </span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:large">by their own choice.</span><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:large">(here sects disagree about baptism, immersion, etc.)</span></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:27.2px"><font size="4"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><br></div></font></div><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:27.2px"><font size="4"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">So free will is necessary for the very bases of this religion.</div></font></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Even if that's so, a problem for selling that point of view -- even people did already have some notion of free will -- would be selling them a two or more ideas by proposing yet another idea that they didn't already hold. So yours doesn't sound like a good explanation for the initial spread of these ideas.</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:27.2px"><font size="4"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">Best I can do, I think. Consult a philosophical dictionary for more.</div></font></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Yes, good idea. There are active debates over this issue -- including over his what 'free will' means.</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:"comic sans ms",sans-serif;font-size:small;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><div style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:27.2px"><font size="4"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">I don't believe in any of it. "I did not mean to do that" means "I wish I had not done that".</div></font></div></div></div></blockquote><br><div>I believe in free will, but I don't believe in any gods. And I certainly do hold to any religion-inspired metaphysics.</div><div><br></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Regards,</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="line-height: 20px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Dan</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Sample my Kindle books via:</span></div><div style="line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://author.to/DanUst" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://author.to/DanUst</a></font></div></div></div></body></html>