Man has the ability to exercise free will

In contemplating to asking you, I did weigh in certain parameters that might apply. I respect your beliefs as an Atheist as, I am sure, you respect mine as a Christian. A classic tool of anger management and conflict resolution is to agree to disagree. Therefore, as I indicated in my opening statement that while discussing free will does involve theological, ethical and scientific levels of discussion, I will agree to focus most of my attention to the scientific arena leaving the rest for future debates. Without a doubt, science has been making great strides in explaining the inner workings of the human brain. Some studies have even shown that an electrical impulse caused by a chemical reaction can be observed a split second before the thought becomes conscious. This would seem to back up your theory. However, could not science be mistaken as to what that observed process actually is? Science assumes that the process involves the formation of thinking. Could it not, however, be recording a memory process that is being played back by the machine (brain) which would allow us to make a more rational thought based upon past experiences? Much like a computer, anything that ever happens to us is recorded in our brain. And, as you indicate, an external stimulus may occur to cause the brain to recall that memory and replay it in our brain which we can, therefore, use to make rational decisions? As infants, we are attracted to that bright orange and blue, dancing, flame. We want to play with that flame despite warnings that we should not. At this point the brain does not have any memory to fall back on to tell us not to play with it. Once we feel the intense heat and finding it not to be pleasurable the brain records a strong memory to not play with fire. In the future when the brain is stimulated by the site of flame, the brain recalls the memory lesson and quickly replays it in order that we can conclude to not touch the flame. Some of these recorded memories become so strong that we come to trust them as irrefutable fact. It was a fact, based upon the collective experience influenced by the then available means of transport, that the world was flat. As man developed the means of transportation that could go further, men like Columbus and Prince Henry the navigator began to challenge that "collective memory" and developed a thought that the world was, indeed, round. They decided to prove that cognitive thought and defy the "collective memory" and subsequently proved the world to be round. I thought to instigate this debate and proceeded to weigh all of the possible outcomes and I (with respectful emphasis) decided to proceed with the challenge perceiving that the outcome had more potential for good than it did for bad. In your analogy of the die, you state that the apparent randomness of the process of throwing the die is just that, apparent. Even factoring in other things as the lint, quality of the felt, the degree of the force of the throw, etc. there is a limited, although large, amount of possibilities on the outcome of the action. Could we not take this a little further? The brain contains a beaker-full of chemicals. While the number is again huge, this limited amount of chemicals can be combined in a limited number of ways in order to produce a limited number of results. This would seem to say, then, that man's thought processes are limited. How, then, could man ever progress to the point where science is today if there isn't something more than the limited amount of thought processes that can be achieved with that beaker-full of chemicals? You state that "Because we cannot predict it (the complex chemical reactions) we assume it "the brain) controls its own fate. " I respectfully submit that this statement is inherently flawed since "x "amount of chemical processes can only result in "y" outcomes. Once "y" outcomes is determined, then we could predict the outcome of anything, even the future. While I may be able to influence what will happen in the future by what I do today, I cannot be certain that I will do tomorrow what I did today. I may decide to do something different. Aside from Spiritual aspects, could not the Shaman be a more focused person that was more attuned to the workings of nature in those ancient times? Being more attuned to the changes of nature he may have noticed certain signs (that the People didn't) to which he concluded that the chance of rain occurring were sufficient enough to call the People to a rain dance? His success rate was probably just as good as today's meteorologists. Much as we malign today's weather man, we still tune into the weather forecast in order to attempt to plan our day. In conclusion, there is a distinct possibility that modern science is just beginning to map out and record the memory processes of man rather than the result: cognitive thought.