Troy DeMolay Chapter Installation of Officers
Last evening Troy Chapter of DeMolay held its installation of officers. It was an incredible event. Once again the Mater Masons of Troy Lodge, our sponsoring body, performed the Installation ceremony and made it a very special evening. We ended up having 75 people in attendance; an incredible turnout! In addition to friends, family, members of the lodge, we also hosted the Wentzville Rainbow Assembly, State Officers, the State and Associate Sweetheart, and members of other DeMolay chapters. Nick was installed as Master Councilor and his family did an incredible job with the decorations, food, and entertainment.
Since I just got my new camcorder I was prepared to try it out. It worked great and it was so easy to transfer the DVD to an MPEG file on my computer. I am doing something unusual and I am going to upload the bulk of the DeMolay Installation ceremony onto YouTube. While I'm sure it is likely to be considered somewhat boring to many, I still think it is interesting for someone who has never been exposed to DeMolay and wants to know what it is about.
After the Installation a state officer in DeMolay, Ryan, performed the ceremony known as the 'Flower Talk'. He did an excellent job though, I do think he sounded a bit too forceful at times. I uploaded it to YouTube so you could hear the kind of things DeMolay stresses to its members.
Finally, I am including something entirely out of context, a short video snippet I took earlier this week. My video camera showed up at the office on Wednesday. As I was unpacking it and figuring out how to set it up one of my colleagues, Ramone, burst into the office to excitedly explain to me how he had figured out a problem. Since I was testing my camera I went ahead and hit the record button. I uploaded this to YouTube as well. I spent this past week entertaining two software engineers from Israel. This turned out to be quite exhausting but we did get an enormous amount accomplished.
On the subject of my last post, free will, I should respond to the thoughtful comments I received.
The first was from Trent Tobler, who goes by the handle of 'BeagleFury'.
Trent wrote:
Why do you feel free will is so important? I can think of a few reasons.. relating to basic tools of ethics and morality, or the rejection of responsibility that it might imply?
Whether you 'choose' because it was pre-determined, or you 'choose' because the quantum dice rolled the wrong way, or you 'choose' because some non-reality based soul tweaked your brain cells, the actions you take and the things you do still impact others. We still feel. We still emote. We still are here.
In any case, I'll bite. I don't think the 'classical' causal determinism of Newton and Einstein can be truly applied to reality, and I understand the "hidden variable" interpretation of quantum mechanics seems to be denied by some experiments. I think our human view of the universe is certainly most incomplete.. we view it as some minuscule localized set of matter and energy present in an almost instantaneous moment in time. The whole grand universe, all matter, all energy, all time, is so vast, I'm fairly sure we will not comprehend on know it all. On the other hand, I believe that what was, was. What is, is. And what will be, will be. In this, I suppose I would be labeled a determinist. Further, I believe that "free will" is a mental illusion... that our consciousness and awareness somehow has a ability to pretend to change the past, to change the present, to change the future.
So, why do you believe this view is not correct, or if it does mirror reality, why is it undesirable to believe?
Trent, I too suspect that 'what was was' and 'what is going to be' has already happened. I suspect that time is, for practical purposes, an illusion of our senses. All that said, within the eternal 'now' of the Universe lives simultaneously an infinite range of possibilities which appear to be reflected by our choices. If this means every time we make a choice or a decision it branches us off into a separate Universe, leaving behind the Universe where we may have made a different choice, well then so be it. However, science and the scientific method is all about experience and observation. Even if my so-called choices are an illusion because what actually happens is every possible choice is made in an infinite number of simultaneous Universes I still find myself in 'this one'.
My experience of Universe is as if there were only one and in this one my choices make a difference. The simple fact of the matter is we each make choices, all of the time, and we contemplate our actions, often quite deliberately, and then live with the results of them.
It is the defacto position that we each have free-will, since it is self-evident in how we operate in in a shared reality. It is up to those who deny we have a free-will to provide proof of the opposite. Something which, quite frankly, I don't see how they could ever accomplish since it flies in the face of experience and add the added ironic benefit of watching the proponents of this position exercises their free will to argue so vehemently that they lack it.
My biggest objection on this topic of free-will is moral. It is all well and good to discuss quantum mechanics, string theory, and parallel Universes but, seriously, it has no bearing on our internal and external experience in the objective world.
You can tell me I live in an 11 dimensional hyperspace, and I might even believe you just like I believe there is a square root of negative one, but it doesn't really affect my four dimensional experience of time and space in any concrete fashion.
My moral objections are quite strong. We see untold horrors visited on our world because individuals either give up their free will or claim they have none. These people who believe they are guided by God, Allah, prophets, or other external forces. They abdicate personal responsibility for themselves.
It creates a culture of victim-hood and people unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions. Freemasonry, Theosophy, and almost all western magickal traditions, stress that the most powerful force each human being possesses is their own free will and, with it, their ability to affect the world around them. It stresses the responsibility of each individual to be a creative and productive member of society rather than a drone who blames all of his problems on external forces.
My belief in free-will is obvious, since is coincides with my experience but, most importantly, is that I take ownership of it. I know that my choices make a difference in the world and that I should take responsibility and ownership of them. This concept is a given in a society where we place people in prison for making bad free-will choices all of the time.
I don't like it when people act like victims. I don't like it when people blame others for their problems. I don't like it when people abdicate their free-will to a pope, preacher, dictator, or any other authoritarian figures. I believe in freedom which begins and ends in the free will of every individual citizen.
I don't know how much more clearly I can state it than that.
Comments
I think you clearly expressed your views on free will. I asked you to clarify why you thought it was bad, because I suspected you rejected it was based on moral reasons, rather than religious, and you seem to confirmed this.
I think there may be a few implied assumptions, perhaps you may have had, as well as others, that may not actually depend on free will:
1. Are the results of an actor less serious if they did not choose the actions that lead up to the results?
A. Should someone who under their own free will and chooses to cause an accident be held liable?
B. Should someone who is under drug induced conditions and lacks reasonable judgement be held responsible if they get into a car and cause an accident?
C. What if the person in had a mental breakdown that was not drug induced, and they got into a car and caused an accident?
- I would claim whether the person had the choice to drive or not, if they get into an accident, it is their responsibility if they are able to attempt to make any kind of reparations that can possibly be made, including the possibility of restricting or removing any priviledges afforded to that person in terms of driving a vehicle.
- I also think that this is one flaw with our current legal system. For all intents and purposes, the legal system is built around the concept of retribution -- you will pay for your crime, rather than the concept of solving the problem -- how can we stop you from doing crime?
2. Does lack of free will allow one to be irresponsible?
- I would argue the two concepts are independant. I'm not sure being responsible requires free will.. For example, I think one could program a computer program to create a "responsible ATM machine" (I know, it is a bit of a stretch, but it's the best I can come up with.) By the same token, I think someone who chooses relatively "good" choices can still be irresponsible. I think responsibility is more a matter of ownership of a problem, and not one of choices you make.
In any case, I think your arguments are less scientific and more moral (and I'm sure you're aware of this). I'm not one to say you should always believe what is real (After all, some people seem to delight in managing their childrens' belief in a bearded man who wears a red suit and delivers presents to the good children once per year..) If believing a false reality leads to a better society, is it worth it?
In any case, I am still fairly certain that if I had the ability to excite specific neurons in your brain and enough time and research to figure out which neurons lead you to specific choices, I could cause you to 'choose' precisely what I wanted you to choose (You would not really have any choice..) I think we are no more than well defined physical, chemical, and electrical processes. Some might say this trivializes our existance, but I think they are being closed minded about it... I think it makes it all the more amazing.
I also don't think that "I did not have a choice" is any excuse when it comes to responsibility. Society is a better place when all involved are responsible (whether they choose to be or not), and I think it is proper to ensure people behave in a responsible manner.