[Preechr]

Predetermined events need not exist.

I am using "God" in the most abstract sense possible. Whether or not you're deterministic or not, you probably believe your actions and existence have some sort of meaning or value. The sum of your and everyone else's actions and existence have some sort of meaning or value. That universal value, positive or negative, is the will of whatever is responsible for our existence, whether or not we are in fact are responsible for our own actions.

That which has a beginning had a cause, so unless you wish to argue off on a tangent whether the big bang happened (which is possible, but do it with Seth,) the universe exists because of something. Something with a will? The existence in which we find ourselves is too perfectly ordered for me to believe it to be for the purpose of random events to take place for random reasons.

That being said, I believe there is a purpose and therefore a will behind our existence. We have the ability to thwart that will with our own decisions. Were we to act as that will intended, we would be serving that will, which is of higher order than our own, so our actions would be of that will.

The only time we can be said to be expressing our "free" will is when we are doing that which is not serving our purpose in existence. When we defy God. When we act as God intended, we are serving, not defying God, and then our actions are of God not of us.