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→Section on morality: reply to Ed
::The error lies in the false dichotomy between "caused choices" and "random choices". It is only robots and dogs who make caused choices. I hold you morally and ethically responsible for every edit you make on this website. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] <sup>[[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]]</sup> 10:39, 10 December 2008 (EST)
::The error lies in the false dichotomy between "caused choices" and "random choices". It is only robots and dogs who make caused choices. I hold you morally and ethically responsible for every edit you make on this website. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] <sup>[[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]]</sup> 10:39, 10 December 2008 (EST)
::: Right. But now you're confusing "choice" with "event". Remember that every '''decision''' is an event, and, as such, is either caused or uncaused. You're claiming that decisions are uncaused. OK. But if decisions are uncaused, how are they anything other than random? If they're truly uncaused, that is, our '''reasons''' have nothing to do with how they're made, because then reasons would have something to do with the production of decisions, which are uncaused events; and this is clearly an absurdity. Morality demands more than just doing the right thing! It demands that we do the right thing ''for the right reasons''. This is why Hume says that determinism is necessary for moral action. If there is no causal relationship between reasons and actions, then no moral action is possible, since morality depends on reason. [[User:StevenK|StevenK]] 13:41, 10 December 2008 (EST)
::*I have spent the bulk of my waking life (at least when I'm not sleeping on the job! ;-) creating rules for computers to follow. I '''cause''' computers to make decisions based on [[if then else]] logic. All their choices are caused, and none are random. But God is not a computer programmer, and I am not some science fiction experiment or fantasy (see [[TRON]]). And neither are you. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] <sup>[[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]]</sup> 10:52, 10 December 2008 (EST)
::*I have spent the bulk of my waking life (at least when I'm not sleeping on the job! ;-) creating rules for computers to follow. I '''cause''' computers to make decisions based on [[if then else]] logic. All their choices are caused, and none are random. But God is not a computer programmer, and I am not some science fiction experiment or fantasy (see [[TRON]]). And neither are you. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] <sup>[[User talk:Ed Poor|Talk]]</sup> 10:52, 10 December 2008 (EST)
::: I fail to see the relevance of this comment. Of course we're not computer programs. But that doesn't mean that there's no problem of freedom... ? [[User:StevenK|StevenK]] 13:41, 10 December 2008 (EST)