Do forgiving God primes strengthen support for state-sanctioned punishment? Laurin et al (2012) found that beliefs in powerful, intervening Gods (both in general and when made salient) reduce people’s endorsement of state-sanctioned punishment. In light of this, we investigated whether the manner in which God intervenes (via forgiveness or punishment) influences people’s endorsement of state-sa...

In the beginning, when God created the universe, the earth was formless and desolate. ...Then God commanded, "Let there be light" and light appeared....Then He commanded, "Let the earth produce all kinds of plants, those that bear grain and those that bear fruit"--and it was done. So the earth produced all kinds of plants, and God was pleased with what he saw....Then God commanded, "Let the ear...

The philosophical debate whether human actions are predetermined or whether they are the result of free choice dates back to ancient times and has not yet been resolved. A different philosophical controversy relates to the right of an individual to free will and autonomy. Important issues in medicine are dependent on the approach to these dilemmas. The purpose of this article is to analyze the ...

Since the popularity of internet and new communication technologies, the issue of information sharing has become a matter of debate. In digital world, distances are meaningless and Information could be transferred to different parts of the world in few seconds. In this paper we discuss the effect of new technologies on licensed information and copyright law. We take this position that in modern...

A common feature of free will is that a person has choices among alternative actions and chooses the action with the apparently most preferred consequences. In a determinist theory, the mechanism that makes the choice among the alternatives is determinist. The sensation of free will comes from the fact that the mechanism that generates the choices uses a non-determinist theory as a computationa...

An analysis of our commonsense concept of freedom yields two “minimal criteria”: (1) Autonomy distinguishes freedom from compulsion; (2) Authorship distinguishes freedom from chance. Translating freedom into “self-determination” can account for both criteria. Self-determination is understood as determination by “personal-preferences” which are constitutive for a person. Freedom and determinism ...

Moral theories typically rest upon the assumption that conscious deliberation plays a causal role in action; however, a growing body of scientific evidence supports a physicalist account of causation that leaves no causal role for mental activity. In response, I develop a moral theory (including moral truth, motivation, and meaning) that excludes considerations of conscious free will. I then co...