Distortion

I hate it when believers first knock science and then try to usurp it - all in the same post!

This article in Cross-Currents, reporting about scientific notions of free will, first states:

"Scientists, who are accustomed to enjoying near-universal credibility and adulation, are also often not, on a personal level, the most obsequious of people. In particular, they have little patience and open-mindedness towards those who challenge scientific orthodoxy, as global warming “heretics” and alternative medicine practitioners will attest.

Yet, upon finding the slightest basis for challenging humanity’s uniqueness, these same self-possessed individuals are more than eager to yield their dignity and pride of place in the universe. Apparently, wrote Rav Dessler, when the drive for hefkeirus, the longing to free oneself from the constricting yoke of Divine oversight implicit in such uniqueness, comes in conflict with the opposing impulse towards arrogance, the former prevails".

So first they try to knock science by bashing the scientists and impugining their motives.

Then they distort the meaning.

"...that it is the subconscious that drives our decision-making"

The reality is that the experiments, while open to interpretation, suggest it's a physical decision, not some nefarious sub-conscious component of the brain as Cross-Currents suggests.



And finally, the posts usurps scientific prestige by saying science is just catching up the with Torah.

"In truth, however, it would be premature for anyone to begin partying at the prospect of having demonstrated, once and for all, that we humans are bereft of free choice and, consequently, of responsibility for our actions. In fact, Haynes’ conclusions actually jibe rather neatly with what the Torah has been teaching for millennia: that it is the subconscious that drives our decision-making."

Don't you just love it?