free will does not exist

Thank you for graciously accepting my argument. I feel much obliged that you take interest in my opinion and I also am very interested to hear your opinion concerning this debate. 1) We are not the authors of our own desires and inclinations. -Take for example the Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky case of July 23, 2007. -The two men forced their way into the house the Petit family in the quiet town of Cheshire, Connecticut -Hayes notices William Petit, the father, asleep on the couch; he proceeds to beat him in the head with a baseball bat in order to silence him, but something within him arose when the man began scream. He subsequently beat him silent. -Komisarjevsky proceeded to tie the two daughters, Hayley age 17 and Michaela age 11, to their beds. -Hayes abducted the mother, Jennifer Petit, and forced her to take him to the bank and withdraw 15,000 dollars in cash. -At the house, Joshua proceeded to take naked pictures of Michaela and masturbate over her. -Hayes and Jennifer returned to the house, Joshua and Steven split the money and then decide what to do next -It was decided that Hayes would RAPE Jennifer and then he subsequently STRANGLED her, much to the surprise of his partner -They then realized that William had escaped his bonds; terrified, the men set the house ablaze resulting in the deaths of the two girls due to smoke inhalation, only William Petit survived. -Komisarjevsky was asked during a taped confession why he had not untied the girls from their beds...his response, "it never crossed my mind" -These men were career burglars, not murders. They never entered that house with the conscious decision to kill anyone. -To provide background information on the men, Komisarjevsky was raped as a child, knew he was "different", and was aware he capable of great coldness. 2) Scientific Reasoning -Moving away from the anecdote, these men will never know why they are as they are; nor will we ever know why we are NOT like them. -If you traded places with either of these men, atom for atom, identical genes, brain (or soul is prefer), and previous experiences, then you would BE these men and would have committed the same atrocities -Thoughts and impulses arise spontaneously in the unconscious portion of our brain and only appear in our consciousness afterwards -If your brain was to be hooked up to an EEG or an fMRI then I would be able to observe your neurons (as little as 256 according to a recent experiment) within your prefrontal cortex decide upon an action approximately 7-10 seconds before you were consciously aware of your decision. Subsequently, 300-700 milliseconds before you are aware your muscles are moving in order to complete an action, your motor cortex had already made the decision for you. -Where is the freedom in this? Your unconscious neurophysiological processes determining every thought, inclination, and desire before you are consciously aware of it, how are you free? 3) Something for my opponent to consider -Let us say every morning you wake up and are immediately thirsty.(Where is the freedom in deciding to be thirsty?)More importantly, sometimes you drink coffee, sometimes water. One morning you awake and possess a strong craving for coffee. Why the sudden the sudden desire for coffee? Why not water? Say you want to be rebellious, why did the thought of being healthy manifest into your brain thereby compelling you to drink water? Why not orange juice or any other beverage? 4) Conclusion -Free will is an illusion because you are not consciously deciding upon anything, not your thoughts, desires, actions, impulses or inclinations. -You had no ability to decide to be sane, nor did you decide not to be insane. -If you were to become another human being, same atomic structure, same genetic makeup, same brain, and same life experience, then you would have committed every action in the exact same manner in which they did. Source: Free Will by Sam Harris