> > Please describe to me exactly what you mean by free will. The ability to make decisions without the aid of past experiences (memory) and current physical brain conditions?
>
> I consider physical factors to be the influence of the environment on your body. This can't be controlled hence if those were solely responsible for your decisions there would be no free will.

Okay, so we have some sort of supernatural basis for free will?

> According to the Bible, He created us "in our own image (Genesis 1:26). Using your analogy, he created more programmers, ones with limited programming skill. Our "programs" only contain instructions on how to program our lives, not what to program them with. That is free will.
>
> Hopefully that clarifies things.

But what basis do we have for writing these programs? My contention is that humans have nothing to draw on for decision making other than physical influences. This is what observation of the way the brain works seems to suggest.

Now, I'll grant the premise that there is a supernatural component to free will. But even do so, I can't imagine what it would be like. Either it's some kind of a priori knowledge, or an intrinsic nature, or... well, I don't know what else. Regardless, none of those things are under the control of the soul in question. My suggestion is that humans are more like programs than programmers. We're incredibly complex programs, and we may have some random elements to our decision-making, but our minds otherwise function in a mechanical fashion. They're capable of learning, but only based upon gathering new data. The program is complex enough to change itself from time to time, but it's still a program.

Do you see what I'm saying?

>
> > But god has also controlled how we are able to make decisions, so, in essence, he controls how we will make those decisions.
>
> Essentially he created us by defining how we make decisions as "How I do it".

Right, this is exactly what I'm saying. God defined how we make decisions. It's exactly like someone building a robot and defining how it will react to certain situations. God has an advantage over any human robot-builder though, since he has perfect knowledge and potential control of *every* situation the robot will ever encounter.

> > Consider this argument:
>
> > (2) Given: God creates and controls the intrinsic nature of souls.
>
> Here's the problem, for God- create != control

You're right. Here's what I meant:

(2) Given: When he creates the intrinsic nature of souls, god has complete control over what that intrinsic nature is like.

Do you believe instrinsic nature is capable of changing spontaneously over time? If not, then it's essentially hard-coded by god at creation, meaning that god is responsible for the way that soul will function. If god makes a soul with a bad intrinsic nature, it is his fault when that soul does bad things. Likewise, if I create a robot that's evil, it would be my fault when it went hay-wire and started killing people (as they all do).

Stephen