Destiny/Free Will

[QUOTE]A study has shown that patients in a hospital who are prayed for have a better chance of recovery.>>Actually, the studies which claimed a correlation are pretty flawed in methodology. See: http://www.skepdic.com/prayer.htmlIt's actually true that people heal better when their OWN outlook is upbeat and hopeful, and if they have a support group.------------------
"We will still have perfect freedom to hold contrary views of our own, but to simply
close our minds to the knowledge painstakingly accumulated by hundreds of thousands
of scientists over long centuries is to deliberately decide to be ignorant and narrow-
minded."-Steve Allen, from "Dumbth"

quote:

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Originally posted by Peke:
[b] It still proves my point. People can change their 'fate' with enough willpower/emotional support.[/QUOTE]

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Well, the idea is that the emotional state of a patient is reflected in the kinds of hormones which are released by the brain, and these hormones affect how well the body heals itself. It is also true that no matter how well-supported and happy some patients are, some still die, and no matter how depressed and alone other patients are, some still survive.

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[QUOTE]I'm arguing that destiny cannot be because that would mean that humans could only improve to a point. That would be true for most other creatures in a way, but humans are tool-makers. Whatever we cannot improve by ourselves, we'll improve by building something to do it for us. The fact we can keep improving ourselfs excludes destiny, because we would eventually find some scientific laws that would predict what humans would do. Destiny would have to keep itself secret, because if the rules were known to us, we would change them.[/b]

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Well, there are scientific laws which limit and, on a very basic level, predict what we would do. Physical law limits us.