On the question of free will and pre-determination,

[MineralMan]

53. Good points. The human brain is a completely natural thing.

It has evolved into a complex-decision making part of our existence. Determinism doesn't really deal with human decision-making at all, really. We can describe the actions of the brain, broadly, in deterministic terms. However, we cannot accurately predict what an individual human brain will decide. The number of variables is impossibly large.

Those who say that we do not make any of our decisions for ourselves, but that they are all explainable through deterministic principles are ignoring the granularity of the human brain in each individual and the complexity of its functions as an additional element of granularity.

No supernatural agent is required for us to have free will, within the boundaries of our limitations. We can, and do, decide on actions, based on completely indeterminable factors. Even working backward from the action, it is impossible to explain exactly how a particular decision was made and why. There are simply too many variables for there to be a direct cause and effect relationship between thought and action.

I once wrote all the content for a massive website for a real estate broker. It included hundreds of pages, each of which had to include a disclaimer paragraph. Due to the idiosyncrasies of the client, he insisted that each of those disclaimers be uniquely written, with no repeated language. It was a stupid request. A boilerplate disclaimer would have been just fine. However, he was the one writing the checks, so I produced over two hundred disclaimer paragraphs, each saying exactly the same thing, but using unique language.

It was an interesting exercise in the use of language. Each new disclaimer required multiple decisions to avoid duplicating the language of previously written ones. Each was organized slightly differently, and explained the information using different words and sentences. Each had to pass muster in terms of legally expressing the disclaimer information. But, guess what? It was easy to do that. I simply wrote them all differently. That's what I do. I'm a writer. My brain can make the thousands upon thousands of decisions needed to produce that result.

We have free will, within the limitations each of us faces. We can decide to do what we choose, within those limits. That does not violate any laws of determinism. Natural variations in results can still function in a deterministic system. It's simply a matter of perspective and what level of granularity you are examining.

I cannot control the length of my life. It will end when it ends. I did not control my birth, nor my genetics. Still, I am a unique individual, and can control my actions through decisions made by the complex system that is my brain. My brain is different from any other brain on the planet in many respects. So, it decides differently.

The only "supernatural" agent involved is my unique personality and life experience. That is where the decisions come from, within the parameters of my limitations. That is free will, but it is limited. Everything has limits.