> 1. You as a human have the ability to control your reaction to anything.
Do you actually have any support for that statement, other than as an article of faith? I am honestly not aware of any scientific evidence for it.
Do you actually have any support for that statement, other than as an article of faith? I am honestly not aware of any scientific evidence for it.
-The idea of 'temporary insanity' or 'diminished capacity' in our legal system. When invoked, it normally asserts that a situation was so overwhelming that the subject couldn't react as they normally would. The 'heat of passion' and all that. This implies that generally, we can control our reactions to most things, and uncontrollable reactions are the exception.
-The field of cognitive behavioral therapy, which does has scientific evidence of effectiveness [0], see cites. Perhaps 'control your reaction to anything' is less-than-supported in the case of CBT, but combined with point 1 that should be more than enough to get you started.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_behavioral_therapy#Ev...
Fundamentally, my point was that there's no scientific basis I can imagine for the idea of free-will, in humans or anywhere else. There's simply no physical law that enables it. (It is, of course, an immensely useful fiction, but that's not my point, which was rather that the entire question of "how to behave rationally" seems to rest on an irrational basis.)