Free Will or Omniscience? (Sorry if i misspelled omniscience)

[Chromatophore]

The question isn't whether you can do it to any character i choose.  Its whether anyone everyone would be willing to.  (In the analogy, you are one omniscient God who would deprive people of free will, but there may still be another omniscient God who could create people possessing free will).

Fixed.

[BluePriest]

Note- The author bit is for Chrom, who is arguing that a character in a book has free will. If you find that idea absurd, then we can agree and move on.

If god lifts the rock that he made, then he failed to make a rock so heavy that he couldn't lift it. QED

The rock thing was fun, but once again, was just for fun.

I took, and maybe I took it wrong, that the comparison is that God is the author, and we are the characters. And based on how I took it, I didnt feel it made an accurate representation of what is actually happening.

[QuantumT]

The question isn't whether you can do it to any character i choose.  Its whether anyone everyone would be willing to.  (In the analogy, you are one omniscient God who would deprive people of free will, but there may still be another omniscient God who could create people possessing free will).

Fixed.

I'd bet that basically anyone could be motivated to do it. Most people probably wouldn't even care.

The rules of good writing don't equal free will.

[Chromatophore]

Maybe they would be more motivated to care if they felt like their free will was at stake :p

[BluePriest]

The question isn't whether you can do it to any character i choose.  Its whether anyone everyone would be willing to.  (In the analogy, you are one omniscient God who would deprive people of free will, but there may still be another omniscient God who could create people possessing free will).

Fixed.

I'd bet that basically anyone could be motivated to do it. Most people probably wouldn't even care.

The rules of good writing don't equal free will.

im trying to understand, whats teh writing comparison for. I dont quite get it.

[Chromatophore]

im trying to understand, whats teh writing comparison for. I dont quite get it.

Its what you said before where God is the author

[QuantumT]

Maybe they would be more motivated to care if they felt like their free will was at stake :p

I'm betting I could provide enough motivation to make them do it anyway.

Also note that the character is utterly reliant on the author to do anything whatsoever. If the author stops writing, the existence of the character does as well.

I took, and maybe I took it wrong, that the comparison is that God is the author, and we are the characters. And based on how I took it, I didnt feel it made an accurate representation of what is actually happening.

Chrom is trying to argue that a character in a book has free will. I'm arguing that this is completely ludicrous. The character has no more free will than a rock I throw into the air.

Basically, the analogy is completely pointless.

[BluePriest]

im trying to understand, whats teh writing comparison for. I dont quite get it.

Its what you said before where God is the author

\then once again,

IT is irrelevant to compare God to a comic book author. It is not

*God writes every single detail that is going to happen*

instead it is

*God writes the beginning, lets us do a few things, makes a few middle things, allows us to do some more things, and then God finishes up the story*

[Chromatophore]

Also note that the character is utterly reliant on the author to do anything whatsoever. If the author stops writing, the existence of the character does as well.

The character exists as a collection of principles, independent of the author.  The author merely provides a medium (the writing) though which to convey the character to the readers.

*God writes the beginning, lets us do a few things, makes a few middle things, allows us to do some more things, and then God finishes up the story*

That is just like an author who is using character-based rather than plot-based writing.  He knows how his story begins and maybe how it ends.  He knows maybe a few major plot points along the way.  And then he knows how his character reacts to things.  The rest is clockwork.

[QuantumT]

The character is nothing more than a specific arrangement of ink on paper. It has as much free will as a rock.

[Chromatophore]

The character is nothing more than a specific arrangement of ink on paper.

If that were true then it would be impossible for two authors to write the same character.

[QuantumT]

The character is nothing more than a specific arrangement of ink on paper.

If that were true then it would be impossible for two authors to write the same character.

Seeing as I can copy whatever words you put down, I fail to see how this is true.