I predict that if you are reading this you will now think of a red tomato. — Bartricks

Indeed, I and most people will think of a red tomato. This does prove that there is a limit to my free will. Zebra. You have no choice. Once you read something, you must think of it. However, this does not mean that that you have no free will- only limited free will. If the movement of matter in the brain makes one move, this does not negate Free Will. While a Will is not matter, matter may have a Will.

Even if the vast majority of our behaviors are otherwise predictable, it would be an error to now conclude that there is no Free Will. This is not the current state of the science. We are not able to predict all behaviors in a placebo controlled double-blind experiment, or any experiment. Until all behaviors are accurately predictable, I cannot surmise that there is no Free Will.

My empirical analysis of scientific study on the issue of Free Will, shows that there is a great degree of determinism, but Free Will has not been eliminated. There is a good article on this at http://philosophersunion.org/

I think you have missed the point, which is that Libet's experiments tell us precisely nothing about free will. They do not imply we lack it, or that we have it. They show at best that our decisions or intention-formings have antecedent causes. Which is something that's obvious and that one doesn't need to run those tests in order to demonstrate.

Libet demonstrated that he could predict a behavior before a subject decided consciously to perform that behavior. His predications were generally correct and the experiment has been replicated. It should the conscious being making choices following his subconscious or matter. This does not negate free will, it only show that the subconscious mind or brain matter itself is the source of free will during that experiment. There are many other behavior humans engage in that may not repeat the pattern Libet found. More research is need with these types of experiments - until then we live in a compatible universe.

Libet demonstrated that he could predict a behavior before a subject decided consciously to perform that behavior. — Ree Zen

Actually no. But even if that is what his experiment did, I did that too: red tomato. Now you're thinking of a red tomato. I knew you would. See?

We - that is, reflective human beings - have always known that decisions have antecedent causes and known that if one knows enough about what those antecedent causes are, one can make reliable predictions about what someone will decide to do. It's not something his experiments showed, and by itself it implies nothing about whether we have free will or not. So the experiment has zero importance to the free will debate. Zero.

Hmm. I started to read this thread, but too much bickering. So hopefully I’m not repeating.

My understanding is the test subjects were told they were supposed to move their finger. And they were to pay close attention to a clock, and note when they actually made the decision that it was time to move the finger.

So they went into it with that understanding. Then, they went about it. They thought about moving their finger. Contemplated when the right time would be. Then, finally, moved it.

After all that, I don’t find it very reasonable to say their body, or subconscious, or anything other than their consciousness, made the decision to move their finger. We do things reflexively and unconsciously, but this doesn’t seem to be one of them to me.

I’d be very interested if, while consciously deciding when to move a finger, the person’s body or subconsciousness made the decision for the leg to kick out.