I see that you are a believer in the concept of freewill. I am not as I see it as a logical absurdity.
So just to be clear what we are talking about and so avoid wasting precious electrons slaying strawmen I will lay out how I see things. Please tell me where you disagree.
At the most basic psychological level, do we have the power to choose our thoughts? Can we control what we will be thinking in 30 seconds time? Thoughts come and go of their own accord(at least that's my experience)in a stream of consciousness. I have no idea of what I will be thinking of in 30 seconds time and I doubt anyone else does either.
Some say we are free to do what we want, but do we "choose" our wants? Personally speaking, I want what I want at the time, but I certainly don't "choose" them.Same for likes/dislikes, passions, fears, preferences etc Does anyone actually consciously choose any of that? Do we even get to choose what foods we like and dislike? I doubt it...
We cannot "choose" our beliefs... we either believe X or not. Like falling in(or out of) love,being happy or unhappy or a thousand other things,we either do or we don't though we may tell ourselves(and others) stories to justify it later, it is out of our conscious control. Our beliefs may(and almost certainly will) change over time but that has nothing to do with a conscious decision. Even if it were then where did that "decision" come from? There are thousands of different decisions made by all of us every day and 99.99% of them are made subconsciously and we don't even notice them, and only think we are choosing when there are conflicting possibilities.You may see it as a choice, I see it that the subconscious decision is announcing itself to the conscious. OK, as I see it we don't "choose" our thoughts,feelings, wants, beliefs, friends or food preferences even(we either like them or not, no choice there), so what exactly do we choose?
