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"If our decisions are not based on free will, then what are they based on? "

Our decisions are based on all the learning we have, outsiders influence, logic or lack thereof, our experience,what we had for breakfast this morning, our emotional stability and a billion other things we will never know effect us...
BUT... God created all of these things exactly the way he wanted it to play out.
He had to if he knows how it will end, and he could have changed any small portion of it to change the ending.
For example, an infinitesmally small change in the design of the amount of gravity could have caused someone to trip and fall. Perhaps my grandfather would have died and I would have never been born - but GOD knew all these interactions as he designed the world -

All of my experiences, my mental states, my emotions, all the neurons in my brain at every moment of my life that effect my "free will" decisions were allready known to Him as He created the world - Every coin flip, every spin of the wheel in Vegas ( even that there would be a Vegas ) were absolutely known and approved by Him - or he would have done it differently.

What's one thing God can't do ?..... Have a surprize party !

"... with a tip of my hat to Schrodinger's Cat"
... a theory in quantum physics - states the cat can be dead and alive at the same time. might somehow be linked to "free will" , but I doubt it.

I agree with everything you said in post #108. I think where we're not connecting is that I am looking at it from one perspective (ours) and you are looking at it from another (God's, or an absolute one). While I agree that from God's perspective we don't have free will (because He has planned every minute detail from beginning to end), from our perspective we do. Since we can't look at things from God's perspective, we must look at them from our own. From our own perspective, we do have free will because we make decisions in our lives not knowing how they will affect us. I think you are having trouble shifting perspectives. I don't know if it's that you don't understand what I'm saying, or if you can't get past this eternal perspective (God's).

I think your Schroedinger's Cat comment might be relevant here. I think that we both have free will and don't have free will at the same time, depending on which perspective we use. I pose that since we don't have God's perspective, we must use our own. From our own perspective, we DO have the free will to choose what to do.

Let me give one more example, and then I believe I will have given it my best to clarify my point. You are walking along and you come to a fork in the road. You can't see what is down either road, but you have to choose one. God knows which road you will choose, and He knows what the outcome is because He planned it all. Does He tell you? No. You must decide on your own. Let's say you decide to go left. Ok, God planned it that way. Let's say you decide to go right. Ok, THAT was God's plan. Since we don't know what His plan is, we must make decisions on our own. That, my friend, is free will.

Just because God has your life planned out entirely does not mean that you can go through it recklessly and still get to Heaven. If you go through life recklessly, maybe that was His plan for you. You may die and go to Hell. However, if you decide to follow God's instructions, then He must have planned it that way and you will get to Heaven. Whatever you choose to do out of your own free will, that was what God had planned you to do.