Freewill in this context is irrational in the lens of the bible. I used to think that the "free" part was akin to no consequence, however I have changed my view on what it means. In the bible freewill means that you are given a choice just as you have with modern law. You are free to steal, but you have to pay some consequence if you are caught. However, the punishment for stealing is jail time.

This type of punishment serves several purposes. First, it protects society by putting a criminal somewhere they can be out of the general population. Second, there is some loss of freedom (punishment) on a more personal level which may act as deterrent for future crimes and Finally, the chance of rehabilitation. Sending someone to hell as punishment is a ridiculous concept when compared to the only paradigm we have in society of the prison system. There is no rehabilitation and what society is protected by putting sinners in hell? If god existed, I would think that it could come up with a better system of freewill than what the bible offers. I know many will say that we aren't as wise as god so of course our systems are flawed and his are perfect, whatever that means. We are offered two choices, blind acceptance that god's ways are perfect or we can question them with our own flawed human minds. 

BTW, I like your analogy of Nebuchanezzar and think it is so true. Your arguement just re-enforces the cohersion tactic of the bible god.

It may be hard to believe; yet, despite how the protestant churches claim today, the reformation leaders DID NOT BELIEVE IN FREE WILL. Thus, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and others have their roots in leaders who did not even hold this belief.

Yet, don't take my word for it. Read the works of John Calvin, Martin Luther, and others. I would suggest "Bondage of the Will" by Martin Luther.

The book of Romans claims that man's will is not free to choose God Romans 3:10-13. Therefore, histroically, the protestant faith, which claims to attempt to return to the teaching of the New Testament, never, ever claimed to believe in the notion of free will that is in so many churches today. I am just saying, be careful with this critique, there are many, many churches today who do not believe in free will. Here is one main one.

www.desiringgod.org

I am not telling you to embrace these beliefs; yet, I just did not want you to be ignorant of the fact that many Christians reject the notion of free will.

I know that,I too would say the same thing. However, i meant if heaven and hell were clearly revealed to us as existing, which they  aren't. Since their is a extremly slim chance of christianity being true,others and I are willing to take that stance. What I meant was that if everyone was born with the undeniable knowledge of their(heaven's and hell's) existence,who in their right mind would pick hell?Hence they are forced to serve god,therefore no free will.

I'm not sure if we're seeing things very differently here, but I honestly don't get how I'm calling them liars.That wasn't my intention.

Is it just me or does The Matrix: Reloaded have a great example of the lack of man's freewill? The scene is where Neo and the Oracle are sitting on the park bench and she offers Neo some candy. He looks at her surprised and say she all ready knows if he will take it or not. He took the candy of course. The oracle is all-knowing so it was destined to happen. He was going to take the candy, otherwise there would have been no offer.

I thought about this concept I have heard some christians talk about in that god does not make itself known to everyone and only a select few. However, some christians say that god makes itself known to everyone in some way in order for us to accept or reject it. This seems to be a contradiction, because either god attempts to woo all of us or just those that will accept the candy. I think Brian37 said something like, "if god knows what we'll do how can we have freewill?" I didn't get this concept until I watched this movie again. If god doesn't offer up the candy because it will rejected then we don't really have freewill, do we? It seems that this is just an example of fate. Am I crazy or does this make some sense?

I hear other atheists say this a lot and I think "What the fuck?" You would choose eternal torture because you could not be happy while other were being tortured?  so you would rather be unhappy that others were being tortured and be tortured along with them, for fucking eternity?

If there was a god, no matter how big of a prick he was or how much you hated him, it would be irrational to the point of idiocy to choose hell over heaven. Eternal torture lasts for a long time, you know, and then for a quite while after that, and then, after lunch break, well, it pretty much goes on forever.

Ofcourse, that's a self refuting argument as it would no longer be rape!
 

On the topic of free will, I don't see the need to try and argue against free will.
You go to a shop and have to make a decision between which sweet you like, you make a choice, that's free will in action.
That's what free will is.
I think people who point out metaphysical determinism are kind of missing the point.
When we talk about 'decisions' and 'choices' we're not talking about physical events.
We use language in all sorts of ways.
Decisions and choices aren't existing things, the same way tables and chairs are, or the same way that physical events are.
When you remember why you use words like 'decision' and 'choice' you remember what free will is and how we have it.

So many people seem to want to deny free will because of how some Christian apologists try and use it as an excuse for bullshit.
The fact is, even if we have free will their argument is bullshit, so you can attack their argument directly without having to attack free will.
Obvious counter examples include:
"If your child was walking off a cliff, would you drag them away to stop them killing themselves? But that would be violating free will - a sin so morally repugnant that God would see you burn in hell before he violated your free will!"

"Well, I know that I don't want to burn in hell, so I certainly won't be going there off my free will. If I end up there, God has definately violated my free will!"

The example above with the gun-threat/rape was also pretty good.