Free will and Sudden events..

[Leyla Shen]

OK. Let me try it this way.

If I'm looking (how ironic?) at the whole thing as all things arising at the same time, then I reckon there can be no such thing as "a person making an arbitrary, conceptual division of reality", really.

If, however, I do postulate that a person "makes an arbitrary, conceptual division of reality" then, that has to be the primary causal point (of origin) of things, no?

[Matt Gregory]

OK. Let me try it this way.

If I'm looking (how ironic?) at the whole thing as all things arising at the same time, then I reckon there can be no such thing as "a person making an arbitrary, conceptual division of reality", really.

Yeah, from the person's perspective there's nothing arbitrary about it, but ultimately speaking, it's an arbitrary illusion created by the whims of cause and effect.

If, however, I do postulate that a person "makes an arbitrary, conceptual division of reality" then, that has to be the primary causal point (of origin) of things, no?

Well, it's a cause, I wouldn't call it primary or the origin or anything. There are no origins in Nature except the ones invented by us, so it can't be an origin. It's also can't be primary because in the creation of something the person's imagination is no more significant than the things outside of him that caused him to imagine. They're both equally necessary for something to exist.

[Leyla Shen]

Yeah, from the person's perspective there's nothing arbitrary about it, but ultimately speaking, it's an arbitrary illusion created by the whims of cause and effect.

Wait a minute; what's an arbitrary illusion?

You don't think the term "illusion" suffices?

[Matt Gregory]

I guess, but I wanted to emphasize the fact that we have no control over what illusions appear to us. It is kind of redundant but it communicates the idea in a little different light, a different facet of it.