Free will, determinism, or what actually goes on in our decision making

[MarkD (A Whateverist, not a Christian)]

@Realspiritik

My main concern was stay as far away as possible from the idea that free will is a force that can be separated from all other aspects of being human.

I agree whole heartedly. I think it is a kind of word magic that after words have been used to identify an aspect of our experience we can feel driven to pin point more and more about it. We lose track that it is an aspect of something subtle about our experience. There is no perspective from which we can examen ‘it’ in the focal point of attention.

[MarkD (A Whateverist, not a Christian)]

@Realspiritik

Sometimes the only set of circumstances to which we can apply our free will is our own inner kingdom – our thoughts and feelings, our emotional choices towards others, and our emotional choices towards God and ourselves. But even this application of free will can be lost to us if our biological brain becomes too seriously imbalanced. Unfortunately, the differential diagnosis (the list of medical possibilities that could account for symptoms of imbalance) is very long, very complex, and very much in need of ongoing research and improved treatment plans to help people recover a sense of agency in their own lives.

I wrote my first response without finishing my read of your post. This part makes me think of mysticism which I understand as an openness to experience ungoverned by our rational minds - not uninformed by what we know rationally but at least undirected by rational considerations. I believe our individual consciousness is never untethered from God. If we really have free will why would me preemptively shut out whatever might be given us to know from the mind of God? This is one arena where many choose the certainty of settled doctrine over the immediacy of what may be there. So even those who choose less freedom do so freely.