Can science explain 'free will' - or is it just an illusion?

Question

Can science explain 'free will' - or is it just an illusion?
Could it be that everything that's ever happened was decided at the 'big bang'? like one big science experiment full of pre-determined chain reactions?

Answer 1

We always have a choice, therefore free will. The key to that is that we must be willing to live with the results of that choice. Nothing was determined by the big bang except the physical universe itself. Nothing is immutable as far as humans are concerned. We make our own destiny so to speak.

Answer 2

The problem of free will is the problem of whether rational agents exercise control over their own actions and decisions. Addressing this problem requires understanding the relation between freedom and causation, and determining whether or not the laws of nature are causally deterministic. The various philosophical positions taken differ on whether all events are determined or not—determinism versus indeterminism—and also on whether freedom can coexist with determinism or not—compatibilism versus incompatibilism. So, for instance, hard determinists argue that the universe is deterministic, and that this makes free will impossible.

The principle of free will has religious, ethical, and scientific implications. For example, in the religious realm, free will may imply that an omnipotent divinity does not assert its power over individual will and choices. In ethics, it may imply that individuals can be held morally accountable for their actions. In the scientific realm, it may imply that the actions of the body, including the brain and the mind, are not wholly determined by physical causality. The question of free will has been a central issue since the beginning of philosophical thought.

Answer 3

I can tell you a bit about this that might interest you. Some scientists notably Oxford Prof. Roger Penrose argue that thoughts are not like computations and so do not fit into the mechanistic view of the universe that you seem to be picturing in your question.
He argues that when we think we are doing non-computable BUT still deterministic physics so to speak. His basis for this is his belief that thoughts are "quantum superpositions of space time geometries" and the equations for these physical states are not solvable by computation. There are non-computable solutions however.
So if you share this view then you can forget about the mechanical brain that a lot of people believe in.

Penrose explains that we solve these non-computable equations by tapping into a world of mathematics that lies outside our physical (computable) world. He calls this Plato's world of mathematical forms.

So after reeading his book Shadows of the Mind I like to think of free will as inspiration and the source of that inspiration is Plato's world. When we think, we are tapping Plato's world for inspiration. When we get that inspiration we obtain a solution for the non-computable physics that we call "Thinking".