Our freedom to choose is simply illustrated by the fact that we have the ability to deliberately tell a lie. Before we commit the act, we will be well aware of what we are about to do, and it will take a deliberate act of will to do it. And we know we have the conscious freedom to either tell a lie or to tell the truth. After telling the lie, we may well regret it, knowing that we could and should have told the truth. Can you not see that this scenario is no automated pre determined action dictated by the uncontrollable forces of nature. It is the person who has control, and the freedom to choose. A freedom which nature alone can't provide.
This makes no difference whatsoever. It is still subject to the same logic; that it is 'deliberate' or 'conscious' is irrelevant.
What is it that you most want to do in the next moment ? Maybe I might want to tell a lie, full knowing that it is immoral; maybe I might want to read a poem or take a glass of pop or catch a bus to Luton (no, probably not that) or say boo to a goose or make a carrot cake. The possibilities of the next moment are multitudinous and in so far as no one is obstructing my cunning schemes I feel free in that.
However, my point is that whatever my choice is, all I am doing is expressing my preference at that moment in time, and I do not choose what preference to have, I merely try to identify it act upon it. My desires, hopes, fears, feelings in the present moment were formed before the present moment and in a moment of choice we identify which of the multitude of competing urges is the strongest at that moment. We do not choose what should be the strongest urge, we cannot choose that any more than we can choose what to believe or what to enjoy or what to hate or how to find the taste of chocolate. These things we discover, not choose.
