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I think the best way to understand Coach Alan's thoery is to observe an animal for a little lenght of time.
A cat may eat, play, sleep, hunt, defecate, etc.. but does it have a mind, an ego? Not really, it's just responding to built-in instinct and a memory of past events. My cat remembers me and the fact that I feed it every morning, so every morning it sits by it's dish (where the food is always placed) and meows at me (attention-getting) to get it's food.
Humans are much the same way in several ways. My body is low on energy so I get hungry. I get up to look at available food. I see an apple and some chips. The visual cues trigger a memory of what nutrients I could possibly intake from either one. My body craves salt, so I go with the chips. Did I make a free choice, or was my decision ordained by chemicals in my brain seeking my survival?
A while back (admittedly while I was depressed) I came to the theory that only acts of self-destruction could prove the existence of free will. Any thought on that?
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