I am completely determined to have free will.

"Shouldn't this be in a religious forum?"

‘Free will’ is only free will if it is used WITHOUT outside influences. ANY outside influence determines how you use it, thus negates said free will.

No it doesn't. How did you come to that conclusion?

And the will has little to do with "religion."

Religion in general, simply uses that term a lot. Deep down, they actually hate the idea of "free" will. They even try to distort it meaning to mean a choice between following Jesus or not, or between good or evil.

Just because a decision is "influenced" does not mean that it is not an action of the will or that the will is not "free."

The will involves an inner decision on where to place our attention and how to direct ourselves. It is the power to direct ourselves and our thoughts and feelings.

The will is either weak or strong. It is always free. Your are endowed with a will naturally and it comes in the same degree as your conscious awareness.

Even a bacteria has a will. It's influence and strength is according to it own conscious awareness of its surroundings.

Fractals, they are random but within an attached rule. Consciousness is like fractals in the sense that pattern arises out of simple rules.

The amount of variables at work in the human computer is pretty extreme compared to our modern PC CPU chips.

We have entire rooms filled with the most advanced computers on earth running in tandem operating on a single problem for weeks on end without rest to tackle some of the calculations needed to understand the human brain. As our ability to solve challenging rigorous mathematical problems we will get a better peak under the hood of mankind.

There are two, maybe three factors at work when trying to tackle to notion of the mechanics of the human brain.

1) transistor count.
2) Software
3) language

As far as transistor count goes we can put together a super computer that rivals human brains as far as total output, but efficiency is not matched. And this is kinda an apples and orange assessment anyways. The human brain does certain things like pattern recognition very well but other things like raw calculations extremely poorly.

This is where #2 and #3 come in. We are working on understanding the language the brain uses, once we have a grasp of the set of functions within the receptors and the gene expression that goes along with it we are on the track to understand the software.

The language is kinda tough for us until we see more of the software. Many believe quantum computing will help us understand how the brain operates.

However we are already using imaging technologies to map peoples reactions to things, and very consistently are able to determine there choice and responses to very specific stimuli.

Does this some how nullify free will. . . . not at all. Does this mean we could explain how the human brain makes choices? Yes

I don't think this can explain how the human brain makes conscious choices. It might explain how the human brain makes programed choices but not conscious willed choices.

Well said this made my day.

Comparing a brain to a computer is a good analogy. But a computer, no matter how good it is put together, will only do what it is programed to do. It will not go out and find its own programing and install it. (Unless it is programed to do so.) It will not uninstall programs it does not like. It does not think. It only processes information and runs programs. It only does what it is programed to do.

So the brain is not the person and it does not make conscious choices, it only processes programs. Neither does the brain go out and find programs and install them or delete programs on its own that it does not like.

The brain does not think. It only runs programs. It does not make decisions outside of its programing instructions. Most decisions people make are a result of programing and are mostly automatic and unconscious.

In some computers there are learning programs that actually learn new things. There is probably a learning program in the human brain too that makes it appear that the brain can think, but it does not think, it only collects new information via sensory input and processes it. It may then make "decisions" according to the new information it has gathered but that is still only part of the programing.

I agree with Jeannie, she just words it better than me!

No it doesn't. How did you come to that conclusion?

And the will has little to do with "religion."

Religion in general, simply uses that term a lot. Deep down, they actually hate the idea of "free" will. They even try to distort it meaning to mean a choice between following Jesus or not, or between good or evil.

Just because a decision is "influenced" does not mean that it is not an action of the will or that the will is not "free."

The will involves an inner decision on where to place our attention and how to direct ourselves. It is the power to direct ourselves and our thoughts and feelings.

The will is either weak or strong. It is always free. Your are endowed with a will naturally and it comes in the same degree as your conscious awareness.

Even a bacteria has a will. It's influence and strength is according to it own conscious awareness of its surroundings.

Thats nice and all, reminds me of the materialist movement hundreds of years ago. However explain the subjective experience of emotion. You ever see a computer feel sad? Perhaps they can simulate it but it is as similar to a simulated explosion.