Go to Determinist Hell

UPDATE: Alexander Hellene responds.

(Inspired by Brian Niemeier’s recent post on free will.)

At first, we learned that the Sun does not revolve around Earth, but Earth around the sun. Then we learned that the home of humanity is nothing but an insignificant corner of a vast galaxy. Then we learned that man came not from deities, but from apes, rendering man no less an animal than a bird or a dog. Then, with the advance of genetics, neuroscience, and information technology, we learn that man does not possess free will. All his behaviors and actions are a product of genetics and neurology. Far from a special snowflake with an undying soul created by a magic sky fairy, man is a moist robot, no different from a laptop except for his architecture.

That is the biological determinist narrative, tailor-made to beat people down and crush their spirits.

The video game Sonic CD summed up the results of this thinking in its final level, Metallic Madness. If you don’t have all the Time Stones and you go to that level’s future, you encounter a rusted, decaying hellscape full of danger and despair, the results of Dr. Eggman’s victory over Sonic. Thirty seconds into the stage’s song, you hear this chilling line:

“You can’t do anything, so don’t even try. Get some help. Don’t do what Sonic does.”

It sums up the message of biological determinism perfectly. You can’t do anything but stay in your pathetic state, and nothing you do matters at all. To believe you can is nothing but magical thinking — get that looked at. Don’t look up to your family, mentors, teachers, or heroes; they’re every bit as robotic as you, and all that supposed wisdom they teach you doesn’t matter.

The good news is, you don’t have to listen to that. It is little more than someone trying to break you to his will through psychological manipulation.

If you disobeyed every implication of the above and kept right on improving yourself, what is that whisperer going to do? Unless he is threatening to take your income, your health, or your life, he has nothing. He has no power over you. All his big-brain philosophizing amounts to a whole lot of hot air.

Remember that Determinist Hell is not real. Determinists have no power; don’t act as if they do, and don’t ever fall for the manipulation. So what if he thinks it’s a “defense mechanism?” You have every right to defend yourself against someone trying to break you. Just go ahead and make that change, no matter what big-brain thinks.

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