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Well what do you think I mean when I say "I chose to give up my free will"

Then one questions me? How do I know I had the choice to begin with? And I say it's simple. Then I am to explain it? Perhaps you're digging to deep, perhaps you're searching for hidden meanings? I didn't speak in a parable. Perhaps I should.

A soldier is in the field seperated from his troop, his communications line to the high command has been disconnected. This soldier goes about his buisness fighting the war in his own way. Then one day this lone soldier stumbles upon a radio. He tries it out but the batteries are dead. Then one day he starts to take heavy fire and dives into a trench. To his surprise a man is sitting in the trench and he holds out some batteries. The soldier quickly takes the batteries and shoves them into the radio while expressing a great thankfulness. The soldier then uses the radio to get back into contact with the high command explaining his situation. The fireing around him stops and the soldier hears his name. The soldier stands up and finds that he was taking fire from his own brothers in arms. The soldier walks over and gladly rejoins the ranks of his fellow soldiers and fights with them taking orders from the high command once again.

This is what I will say. As I was born with free will I did things on my own. My own way, my own will. I have since become reconnected with the Almighty and have come to the realization that my free will is what is wrong thus I surrundered to the Almighty's will.

So your free will comes from something that's not scientifically verifiable? That's really all you needed to say. sweatdrop

Note: This may look familiar.

When a person is hypnotized, they can be given a post-hypnotic suggestion to, say, remove their left shoe and place it on the table. They might then be told to forget that command. When brought out of hypnosis, said person may display signs of restlessness, and then will invariably remove their left shoe and place it on the table. When asked why they have done so, they will likely give an answer along the lines of, "I just felt like it."

Thus can a person be convinced that their actions are entirely of their own decision, whilst in reality, they are not.

Perhaps all actions are this way: responses to identifiable stimuli. Perhaps not.

There is a theory in quantum physics known as Many-Worlds Theory. In this, all possible worlds are expressed. Every moment of decision, be it whether your car keys are here or there, whether you go left or right, or whether gravity or weak nuclear force exists, creates several alternate universes: one for each possible outcome. Thus, the construct known as the Multiverse would be made up of infinite universes, some almost identical -- Paul ate the eggs on one, the sandwich on the other -- and some so vastly different that no connection could possibly be made. This theory, if true, would effectively eliminate free will through the expression of all possible choices. It wouldn't matter what you chose, because on another world, you'd have already made the opposite choice. On a third you'd never have been faced with the decision. On a fourth, you'd have never existed in the first place.

The ways in which we could not have free will far outnumber the ways in which we could. Heh, but on another world, it might be that the possibility of free will outweighs the lack thereof. Wrap your minds around that.

Perhaps even such choices as celibacy and suicide cannot be freely made? Perhaps the choice to be celibate actually arose from the subconscious assessment of one's own genes to be unsufficient and unfit for replication. When we meet a person, we immediately begin to subconsciously assess them in this manner. Perhaps that same process, turned inward, can result in these decisions, though we would not be aware of it, and would believe our choices to be an act of free choice. Perhaps we even believe in free will because we have no choice. That would be extremely ironic.

I can honestly say that I have no idea whether I have free will, and if so, where it might originate.