This essay addresses the apparent confrontation between determinism and our sense of acting as rational actors in the universe. In an attempt to make sense of this question and the implications it entails, several forms of argument will be explored. Finally, I tentatively propose that the most parsimonious explanation currently lies in some form of compatibilist approach. Antonio Damasio has argued that damage to the cortex can impair cognition to such an extent that sufferers no longer have free will (2005). This essay will address a deeper question: whether any of us have free will. This concern arises from an apparent confrontation between two of our deeply held and necessary concepts. These are the vision we have of ourselves and the vision we have of the universe. We view events in the physical universe as forming a continuous causal chain extending back to the Big Bang, unfolding to the present through the immutable logic of natural laws. To live a comprehensible life, we need such a comprehensible view of the universe. However, we also believe that we must constantly choose between alternative courses of action. Should I pursue psychology or philosophy? Should I settle down with my book or go to my friend's party? The apparent confrontation between determinism and our self-view suggests that we must choose between a comprehensible description of the universe and our ability to make truly free choices. Determinism suggests that our choices are determined by events that we could never have chosen, given that they were triggered billions of years before we were born. From this point of view, it is by no means clear what sense it can have to imagine this middle of paper...... existence and free will. Given what many perceive as the diminishing returns of materialism in explaining psychological and physical phenomena, a radical conceptual breakthrough may be necessary to truly reconcile the self with the universe. The existence of free will remains a perplexing question, dividing scholars today. as was the case millennia ago. The arguments on both sides have become more nuanced; The premises have become more precise and more astutely posed, but it seems possible, even likely, that we currently lack the appropriate conceptions of causality and mentality to unify scholars in a consensus on free will. In a particular sense, the universe needed freedom to exist. The universe itself represents the exercise of a kind of freedom that we have not yet understood. Maybe we don't have freedom. Perhaps it is truer to say that freedom holds us.