I said I was going to say good day and end this conversation, but then I got to wondering whether I might have already done so previously. I mean more than just a couple of weeks ago. It turns out that I have.

You know, when two different commenters tell a blogger that he has been doing a poor job of debating on the blog, he begins to wonder. I actually asked a group of independent observers to check in and see if I was doing as poorly as you said. But when that blogger finds out that the two different people are actually one and the same person coming back to comment under false pretenses after having been banned, that puts it in an entirely different light.

I expect you will soon be getting another email from Joe Carter, the editor of this blog, not unlike one he sent you sometime on or shortly after March 20, 2011.

Good day again.

You also claim this:

the person whose path is being chosen by another still has the free choice whether to let his path be chosen

But your claim is not obviously true. It seems to simply assume that the coerced person has what you call “free choice” (whatever that means).

“To have one’s path determined by government coercion is different from having one’s path determined by one’s own desires, beliefs, and other attitudes (even if these attitudes are themselves determined by “biological events”).”

To rephrase what you’ve said, it seems that you’re trying to make a distinction between a path determined by ourselves versus a path determined by others. But I don’t see how that’s a true distinction for the following reason…

If someone were to impose their will upon me, isn’t that merely an example of someone else making a choice based on their own desires, beliefs and attitudes? As such, isn’t it true that both of the cases you mention above is really the same thing, with the only difference being whose desires, beliefs and attitudes are being fulfilled?

Further, the person whose path is being chosen by another still has the free choice whether to let his path be chosen (he could choose imprisonment or death rather than following the dictates of the government, for example). In this sense, everyone continues to make free-will choices even if the consequences to these choices may be extremely unpleasant and unlikely to be chosen.

I think Tom and I are in agreement that if someone is able to make a choice to fulfill their beliefs and desires (whatever those may be), then free will MUST exist as a fact and not simply as an illusion. To try and divide situations as you seem to have done is not a valid response to this problem for the materialistic worldview.

But I had said good day to you. If you have a last word to offer after this one, I expect I will let it stand without reply.

For my part, I do not wish to attempt to explain difficult points to someone who refuses to concede obvious points.

But if you think there is a substantive difference between your questions in #22 and #30, and that I am misguided for not sharing that opinion, then you are wrong. The two questions actually are substantively identical.

If you are referring to some questions other than #22 and #30, then you are calling me misguided for some reason you have not bothered to communicate.

Either way I have nothing further to say to you. With regrets, I stand by my assessments already stated. If in the future you have a desire to engage in discussion with me on one of my blog posts, please demonstrate the respect of not putting on the condescending tone. Please demonstrate also the respect of not acting as a secretive sort of Socrates toward a disciple. It’s unbecoming for two adults to interact that way—unless they are agreed that one of them actually is a Socrates.

Until then, good day to you.

I am sorry that you feel the way you do about our dialog. I regard your attitudes as regrettable largely because they are so misguided.

I’m not quite sure how to regard your apology. It seems to be an apology for how I feel. Maybe that’s not what you intended to say; I don’t want to jump prematurely to that conclusion. But it it’s worth at least mentioning that my feelings have not asked you to apologize for what they are.

At any rate, I am sorry that you feel disrespected.

I do not prefer to be treated with condescension and control maneuvers such as you have been employing. It is, in a word, disrespectful on your part; and you have given me no reason—you have repeatedly refused to give any reason—to believe we might be heading in a direction that would make the experience worthwhile. Good day to you.