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Curiously I just read an article today titled Yes, Free Will Exists by philosopher Bernardo Kastrup that was published in Scientific American in 2020 that says the following...
I identify with my tastes and preferences—as consciously felt by me—in the sense that I regard them as expressions of myself. My choices are thus free insofar as they are determined by these felt tastes and preferences.
Kastrup is a metaphysical idealist, and brings up the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in the article to make his point as regards whether we have free will or not.
Overall, a modern metaphysical idealist model of reality appears more internally consistent, parsimonious (i.e. conforms to Occam's Razor), and has greater explanatory power as regards known science than the standard materialist/physicalist model. Metaphysical idealism is option #4, missing from Ghost of a Duke's impoverished list.
I take phenomenal consciousness (akin to Schopenhauer's Will) as the irreducible and universal ground of reality. One cannot reproduce the qualities of felt experience from the quantitative parameters of physics, which, after all, were invented by human minds to relate and compare qualities perceived by our senses, and not capture the essence of those qualities. I'll say it again: qualities of conscious experience cannot be reduced to quantities—not even in principle.
So what do I identify as? I think my answer would have to be similar to Kastrup's answer. No one truly identifies as the neurophysiological activity of one's own brain, day by day, moment to moment. Such activity is just an abstraction, since it is not activity that one has direct experience with.
P.S. Here is the full article by Kastrup, a little over 3 pages long:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/observations/yes-free-will-exists/
@KellyJay saidConsider an alternate interpretation:
Philippians 1:6
And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
The work God is doing is in us, changing us from the inside out, where we start choosing to love over hate, to obey out of love, not just obligation or to acquire anything. The two great commandments are to love God and each other. This ...[text shortened]... ife, and pride, and it becomes a direction we start to walk down, and our lives start to reflect it.
Rather than thinking of god and the devil as some kind of externality, think of god and the devil as inside YOU. Like your "good side" and your "bad side".
All the bible is telling you is to try to err toward your good side rather than your bad side. The divine is within YOU but so is the devil.
The point of all religious texts is to enable civilization to succeed so we don't become extinct and the way we do that is to ensure that we do things for the greater good rather than simply caring only about ourselves.
@uzless saidTo understand good and bad, we have to know what good and bad are; without God, they are nothing but personal preferences that we use to color our lives the way we want. I’m not sure what you mean by a “divine you." God is divine. We are of this world, and you can find fault in us all.
Consider an alternate interpretation:
Rather than thinking of god and the devil as some kind of externality, think of god and the devil as inside YOU. Like your "good side" and your "bad side".
All the bible is telling you is to try to err toward your good side rather than your bad side. The divine is within YOU but so is the devil.
The point of all religious tex ...[text shortened]... is to ensure that we do things for the greater good rather than simply caring only about ourselves.
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@KellyJay saidAnother view could be that we are all little cosmic sprouts trying to do as well as we can (or not), sometimes despite the pernicious local adherents or the faith leaders thereof of some local faith-systems of Earth.
To understand good and bad, we have to know what good and bad are; without God, they are nothing but personal preferences that we use to color our lives the way we want. I’m not sure what you mean by a “divine you." God is divine. We are of this world, and you can find fault in us all.
On my side I understand that faith can be and often is a necessary support for many people -- and I wouldn't want to undermine that -- but I have also noticed the dark side of faith, especially as expressed by some dividers and as manipulated by some power-mongers in America.
I imagine you live every day in the Light of Christ, and I'm happy for you -- without irony or sarcasm.
@Arkturos saidA view without evidential substance in history or the material world doesn’t reflect reality well; I'd choose Christ as the prime reality over comic sprouts, everything from nothing, or an eternal universe that presents itself as billions of years old.
Another view could be that we are all little cosmic sprouts trying to do as well as we can (or not), sometimes despite the pernicious local adherents or the faith leaders thereof of some local faith-systems of Earth.
On my side I understand that faith can be and often is a necessary support for many people -- and I wouldn't want to undermine that -- but I have also notice ...[text shortened]... magine you live every day in the Light of Christ, and I'm happy for you -- without irony or sarcasm.