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from the the-power-of-god-compels-you-to-read-it dept.
The conviction that demons exist—and that they exist to harass, derange, and smite human beings—stretches back as far as religion itself. In ancient Mesopotamia, Babylonian priests performed exorcisms by casting wax figurines of demons into a fire. The Hindu Vedas, thought to have been written between 1500 and 500 b.c., refer to supernatural beings—known as asuras, but largely understood today as demons—that challenge the gods and sabotage human affairs. For the ancient Greeks, too, demonlike creatures lurked on the shadowy fringes of the human world.
But far from being confined to a past of Demiurges and evil eyes, belief in demonic possession is widespread in the United States today. Polls conducted in recent decades by Gallup and the data firm YouGov suggest that roughly half of Americans believe demonic possession is real. The percentage who believe in the devil is even higher, and in fact has been growing: Gallup polls show that the number rose from 55 percent in 1990 to 70 percent in 2007.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/12/catholic-exorcisms-on-the-rise/573943/
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @06:43AM (1 child)
Control over one's actions is a standard definition and will work. Unlike your pressure analogy choice can go eithr way regardless of external or internal pressures.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 06 2018, @07:00AM
If by ``control over one's actions'' you mean ``one's internal monologue and/or thoughts causally influences one's actions'' then yes, free will exists, it's just that ``one's internal monologue'' and ``one's thoughts'' have physical existence in one's brain, which evolves* per the usual laws of physics.
When you say ``choice can go either way regardless of external or internal pressures'' do you mean that your neurons do not evolve* per the laws of physics**? If so, that can be tested in a lab. If it is the case that the movement of ions in a neuron is causally influenced by something other than physics then neuroscience has yet to notice.
*here merely meaning ``to change over time''
** I identify ``choice'' with the firing patterns of neurons because choices don't mean anything without action (whether immediate or having an influence on later action) and actions occur via efferent neurons***.
*** yes there are edge cases, but they're not relevant to my knowledge.