Free Will and the Philosophy of Science

Brain Blogger: http://brainblogger.com/2009/04/14/free-will-and-the-philosophy-of-science/

Neurological research is being used to determine whether free will is just an idea created by humans to feel in control or can scientifically be proven. Some researchers have found results that they believe don’t make the idea of free will probable. However, these results can be interpreted differently. According to this blog there are a few philosophical assumptions that were alternately made, by other researchers, when it comes to deciding whether free will is in fact able to be determined; materialism, naturalism, determinism, etc. Science is founded on these philosophical assumptions. Because determinism is assumed by materialism, these scientists are trying to determine something that is not cannot exist based on these assumptions. This explains why free will is interpreted to not be plausible. So a question I pose is do you think that free will does exist? Or is it a phenomenon of science? Or just an idea that we as humans try to hold on to in order to feel in control of our own lives? What do you think?