Get to the biological roots of decision making:
- Nerves fire, or they don't, and that determines your actions and feelings.
- Nerves are influenced by all kinds of stimuli, mostly other nerves (presumably under your control, but often not, as influnced by.... other nerves, chemical signals, external environment)
That's really all I can think of.
The best picture I can paint for free will is that it takes a long time before you are absolved of responsibility for any single "what if" in your life. In other words, long-term actions are an evolution of many short-term, and short-term day-to-day choices are supposedly your own responsibility, in an abstract "court of law". (People use that as an excuse to make bad decisions all the time, naively or apathetically taking advantage how short-term behavior evolves into the long term. -- Therein lies a logical flaw, since one can't control one's apathy anymore than the other decisions we are discussing.)
So the real issue is: do I have any choice over my own thoughts and feelings? (Immediate? Long-term?) How can I, when those thoughts and feelings are most influenced by those same thoughts and feelings, which were formed by the 2 points I outlined above.
So the kicker is that you are held accountable for single actions (like a crime), despite that such an action is beyond your control. But don't complain. Neither do policemen have a choice when they decide to crack your skull for being a punk.
The antidote is to "magically" fall into a pattern of behavior that is both pleasurable and acceptable. If your THINKING PATTERN or your LOGICAL STYLE is good, then you will be OK. These are deeply personal matters, which is why thinkers tend to have personality conflicts. It's also why we give a free-pass to those we admire when they deviate and do something bad, like cheat, steal, or lie. (ie- We either love or hate the sinner, and ignore the sin.)
(One finer point- I've noticed that I can't make any decision for as long as I'm thinking about it. Thinking = paralysis.)
If you really want to gain some perspective-- study recursive programming. If I say, "Read this sentence, repeat until condition X" (and also pass whatever parameters you like... none if you wish), then you may be stuck reading that sentence forever, and away goes your free will! Most importantly-- who is responsible for (who has "free will" over) condition X? Maybe you're responsible for obeying my command to start reading. Maybe you choose to start reading on your own. Maybe you should "choose" to stop (recall the logical flaw of this...). Maybe X is bullcrap, or maybe it's a Commandment from God.
The task, it seems, is to sort out the origins of original thoughts, conditions, and behavior. That's the realm of academia, including history, and all the sciences, etc. Problem is that universities have been perverted by selfish interests that conflict with my own chosen (or not) view of the world.
Oh-- and fractal patterns. Study how fractals manifest and seem to paradoxically both define and refute chaos theory.... In fact, I recommend everyone download a fractal screen-saver right now, get drunk, and stare at it all night. EVERYTHING will be clear to you then.
Yes, that would almost seem to facilitate the need for evil too -- which, has a bearing on our choices -- now wouldn't it?
