Catholic and Loving it!

So, where is this all going?

I set out to explain why I bother with religion and so far everyone is thinking the answer is "because only religious people are willing to put up with your endless babbling with nary a conclusion in sight."

I have observed that there are a number of points that Science is fundamentally by definition unable to deal with. I am left trying to resolve "everything has a cause" with "something came first" and can only conclude that "something somewhere happened for no reason". The problem now is that I have strayed beyond the white lines science has carefully painted around the playing field. These are not scientific questions. These are religious questions. At this point I suppose I could simply say that I bother with religion becase I find myself troubled by these religious questions. The End. As Lemony Snicket would say, you can stop reading now. But that's hardly a decent explanation for paying attention to an old man in a dress and bright red shoes. I'd better go further...

A Choice to make about Choice...

I tried to imagine in my head how free will might work in a purely physical world. At first sight, most of my choices seem to be based on the physical reality around me. For instance, if I am hungry I choose to eat. If I am thirsty I choose to drink. This is not free will though, free will doesn't mean automatically reacting to my physical situation. Free will means I can choose not to eat when I am hungry. But why would I? For other physical circumstances? Just randomly? Is free will just the rolling of a dice.

If my free choice is truly free and truly mine it can originate from nowhere but me and I can have no reason for choosing it but my own free will. It seems to me, that every time we make a free choice we break the chain of causality. We refuse to be enslaved to the physical order of doing something simply because of physical causes but make choices simply (to quote Billy) "because we want to"...

It seems to me that every truly free choice must be an act of creation on the part of the chooser. Physically speaking, it is a physical event without a physical cause. Think about it. If it has a physical cause, it is not free. Just bouncing like a ball.

So I have to choose.

If I have the ability to make free choices - free will, then there must be some part of me that exists in a non-physical sense. This is the only rational explanation I can think of to explain my ability to make truly free choices independently of physical causation. If this sounds like religious crazy talk, that's because it is. Religious crazy people call this non-physical part of me my "spirit" or my "soul".

But the alternative is worse. If I reject the existence of a "soul" then I must reject my ability to make free choices. If my every choice is determined by the laws of physics then I have no more choice than a bouncing ball. I would have to be crazy to convince myself that I cannot make free choices.

I'm going with option A. I have a soul.

Oh my God I'm starting to sound like a freaking religious person...