If Semantic is enough to keep my cheque book closed, I'll milk it for all its worth
Very well, let us focus on the nature of human descision making. If you go into a restaurant, and on the menu are, say, beef burger, or chicken burger, you have a choice (I'l ignore the obvious point that you are already restricted by the fact that there are only 2 options on the menu, its not a very good restaurant), beef or chicken, naturally, you will pick the one you prefer. but why do you prefer the one you do? is it a concious descision? or is based on the chemichal reaction between your taste buds and the food? have you been influenced by a recent scare about beef? which picture looks more apetising? You have no control over which one you prefer, and unless your making a deliberate point to prove me wrong about free will, your going to choose the one that you like.
Free will is an illusion created by the situation in which we are presented with options, we will, unless overwise influenced, pick the option that is best for us, is this really a free descision? or is our conscious mind creating the appearence of a free choice over a calculated process of synapses firing and chemichal responses in the brain.
For a descission to be truly free, surely there must be NO outside influences or pre-desposed preferences AT ALL. this is rarely if ever true, and I for one cannot think of any examples.
Every choice made, every action taken has reasoning behind it, in all cases that I can think of, that reasoning is predetermined by the combination of genes, enviroment, upbringing culture, and a whole host of other uncontrolable factors.