Is free will an illusion? Does Calvinism have a point?

I think there are several factors that influences our choices in life. 

First of all we have genetics, which can determine certain things. For example some people are genetically predisposed to become substance abusers, like alcoholics or drug addicts. For them touching substances can be dangerous, whereas others can casually drink alcohol without becoming addicted and abusing the substance.

Then we have knowledge and experiences. For example if your parent tells you that the cooking stove is hot and you shouldn't touch it, then you will know not to do that. But if you still decide to touch it, and it burns your skin causing pain, then from that experience you will know it's dangerous to touch a hot stove. Knowledge and experiences influence what choices we make and what we believe to be real.

Finally we also have intelligence, which some argue is at least partially determined by genetics. Intelligence allows us to process knowledge and experiences to make optimal decisions that are beneficial to us and others we care about. Intelligent people also seem to have more self-control and they can delay gratification, like for example investing years of learning in medical school to become a doctor and thereby earn a good living and help people.

So we have genetics, intelligence, knowledge and experiences that create a framework within which we will make our decisions as individual human beings. If you know the stove is hot based on knowledge from your parents and personal experience by once touching a hot stove, it's likely that you won't touch it again.

Do we really have free will? Well take for example Finland. The Finns have arguably the highest IQ in Europe on average and many of them are highly educated in college or university. Yet despite their high intelligence and education, they are heavy drinkers of alcohol, to the point that many die from liver failure. So here we can see that for some people their genetics can be a stronger influence on their behaviour than intelligence, knowledge or experiences. An alcoholic can know that drinking is bad for their health both in the short-term due to hangovers, and in the long-term due to liver damage. Yet they choose to continue binge drinking year after year until they reap what they have sown.

I'd say the same applies to believing in Christianity or any religion. You must have the right genetics, knowledge and experiences which opens you up to having faith in God. That's why I am starting to think that maybe Calvinism has a point after all. Perhaps only certain people born with the right genetics and provided with the right information and experiences from their environment, can come to having such faith that they will endure to the end. I know that this applies to my personal situation, I had to get certain information and go through various experiences, before I was ready to believe. You can call it God drawing you or whatever, but that's what happened.

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