I respond you to for the second time, fully aware that the likelihood is that multiplying responses significantly reduces the impact of any individual response -- that's just the way defensiveness works.
But I have to say ...
Your argument is based on a presumption of materialism, of cause-and-effect; you do not admit the possibility of influences beyond the merely determinstic.
Free will is based on the idea that determinism is a load of crap -- that there exists freedom not determined by causality. If you start out by assuming that all action is the result of prior causation, well ... it's not really very reasonable, is it?
A spiritual mindset presupposes the existence of a spiritual dimension, a dimension not governed by merely material rules -- that is to say, rules governed by time. You're free to disregard such things, of course; free will enables you (weg!), but it's not very reasonable, nonetheless.
Many people nowadays seem to subscribe to scientism, as opposed to science. They assume that, if something can't be proven, then it isn't real; when the truth is, if something can't be proven, then it simply isn't proven -- it may be real, and it may not be; science simply doesn't know. I think positions like yours arise from a sort of defensiveness, as though you are expected to accept something you don't feel comfortable accepting, because it hasn't been "proven." Well, that's ok, if you ask me. I think personal integrity, honesty, is far more important than regimental adherence to a laundry list of "beliefs."
Do I believe in God? Indeed, I do. But I also believe that if someone has honest reservations, God respects those a lot more than submission out of fear of reprisal. And, no, I don't believe in Hell, not the in classic sense. Seriously, you can't reconcile it with the idea of God as love. As a temporary place of remedial punishment? Sure; I can see that. But what sort of human father would consign his child to unending torment? And Jesus invites us to compare God to human fathers, when it comes to love.
Every individual lives his or her life as though free will exists. Think about it. Forget philosophy; what a man "believes" is evidenced more by what he does than what he says. Don't let philosophy become Ouroboros. That way lies madness.
