Man has the ability to exercise free will

You present some apparently very good points, my friend. While you don't think that science can be mistaken, haven't earlier theories been disproven as time goes on? Therefore, what is being promoted as absolute scientific truth today may very well be proven wrong tomorrow. Both the planets and the trees do not have the ability, as far as we know, to think and therefore cannot determine their own fate. While things may come about because something caused them to begin the process of cognitive thought , the ability to exercise free will is a matter of choice. Something may stimulate a thought in my mind but I may decide to ponder that thought, if ever, at a later time. While we may not be able to control the universe yet, the mind is a powerful force. It is said that the conscious mind is like the picture of an iceberg. Only 10% of the iceberg is showing above water level with 90% below water. That part below water is equal to our subconscious mind which, for the most part, is going about its business without us knowing exactly what it is doing. While experiments by Benjamin Libet show that unconscious brain activity precedes the conscious decision, he does not interpret his findings as evidence of the inefficacy of conscious free will. Libet points out that: "although the tendency to press a button may be building up for 500 milliseconds, the conscious will retains the right to veto that action in the last few milliseconds." Memory can serve man very well. It is but a tool and, as such, is only effective if I use it but if I do it will make things easier. The older we get, the more items are stored in the memory bank, and have been reinforced to the point that we accept them without further thought. Without thinking about it I know in a millisecond of memory that touching the flame is not going to be a very smart thing to do. The only control memory has over rational thought is what I have decided to give it. Past experience tells me that skipping around the facility I work at might be dangerous, wearing a pink tutu is just not my style (I have decided, although I once consciously wore a brown shoe and a black shoe to a class I was teaching in order to prove a point.) and at my age I have difficulty remembering the lyrics to most songs. I have a distinct aversion to needles and experience tells me that a bowie knife would cause much more pain and damage and my studies show that drinking gasoline, although some desperate alcoholics have tried it, could definitely be fatal. While I could very well choose to do any of those things that you suggest, I would more than likely choose not to do them. No matter how large the number, possible outcomes are limited. Free will, however, is the monkey wrench in the machine. Could it be, Harlan, that a "human mind cannot possibly be predicted by a human mind" because a human mind cannot predict another's free will? You are probably right in that man will never build a super computer capable of predicting the future exactly because any computer is built upon human input and you just can't input free will into a computer. You hit upon something that we have agreed to debate in the future, the theological question of when, in the evolutionary time line, free will was infused and by Whom! You are correct in stating that animals do not have free will. While man's body may have evolved from animals, it is free will that makes us different from them. Einstein specifically states that he is talking from a philosophical point and offers no scientific proof as a basis for his assumption. Einstein also wrote: "I want to know how God created this world, I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know His thoughts, the rest are details." His famous epithet on the "uncertainty principle" was "God does not play dice."