beliefs are the root cause of agony (Introduction)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Wednesday, February 09, 2011, 22:48 (5015 days ago) @ romansh

I'm not sure of your point here xeno, are not human beings and societies chaotic systems? 
> 
> I would argue they are.-
Formally, the answer to your question is "no." There is no theorem in chaos theory that describes human systems as "chaotic."-Are you arguing within the confines of mathematical chaos theory? -If you are, then the burden of proof is completely upon you, because I have not read of such a proof in either of my books on non-linear dynamics--and trust me, such a proof would profoundly impact all aspects of chaos theory. Publish the proof, and send yourself to Sweden. Or admit your path is blocked here.-If you are arguing "chaotic" as in "human beings exhibit disorder," then humans have free will. The opposite of "free will" is determinism, and in this view human beings are nothing but predictable finite automata. Human behavior has shown itself to be unpredictable in all but the most grandly generic scales. The only way to argue that humans are determinable is to ultimately resort to Chaos Theory which is blocked above. -Either way--at this juncture you have nothing to argue. But I'll go further...-In terms of other kinds of evidence, as I said before the entire body of Zen Buddhism (and much of Hinduism) is rooted in the deliberate practice of free will. If you learn how to focus, you can tell the difference between your mind and your consciousness. The mind is a chatterbox. The consciousness is serene.-In the OCD case & neurosurgery case I discussed, people were aware that they were being controlled. These two bits of evidence are two more slams against the notion that human behavior is deterministic.-And last but not least... the entire field of psychology. The only attempt to bring "order" from "disorder" in the human world. It too fails to explain human behavior. (Economics does a much better job of that.)

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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"