science of ethics utilizes cause and effect as fundamental assumptions. However, "free will" was specifically developed to exist outside the realm of cause and effect, and determinism -- in spite of it being the essence of cause and effect -- has been given a spin, as it relates to choices, that has effectively resulted in moving it outside the realm of cause and effect. Determinism has been interpreted to mean predestination, fatalism, that we can ignore the specifics of how people make choices because choice is an illusion. This came out of the thinking of early Christians since an omniscient God would know everything in advance; therefore, every choice was preordained, and then was supported by early physicists who thought that anything is predictable if one has enough data. Chaos theory and other knowledge show us this is not the case. Chaos theory tells us that everything is caused, but nothing is predictable except within certain limits over limited periods of time.

"Free will" states that one's choices are not caused. They are freely made. Free choice (like quantum mechanics), therefore, exists outside the realm of cause and effect. This thinking allows one to believe that when someone commits a bad act, they deserve and require punishment. The belief is that they could have done the "right" thing, but they freely chose to do the "wrong" thing.

Determinism is based on the idea that choices are caused. However, as indicated above a common assumption attributed to determinism has been that because choices are caused, they are predestined. This leads to the idea that there is nothing the individual can do to change their behavior; i.e., predestination/ fatalism describe human choice.

"Free will" and fatalism are rejected by a science of ethics. Our view is that human beings make genuine choices based on their knowledge, physical state, the condition of the universe, etc. To examine science of ethic's answer to the question, Can an individual actually make a choice? click here.

9. How does a science of ethics interpret "Good" and "Evil"?

Can an individual actually make a choice? .

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