Spirit or brain?

[hot_pastrami]

You misconstrue my logic... the key phrase is "the same set of circumstances exactly." If I perform an experiment like the one you describe, the circumstances will be significantly different each time. I do not have the precision to place the dice in exactly the same point on the ruler each time, nor can I manage to push them with the same force, or be inhaling or exhaling with the same force, or get the angle exactly right, etc.

I'm not saying it's actually possible to recreate the circumstances of the Big Bang with exacting detail to the subatomic particle level, I'm just remarking that if it <i>were</i> possible, one might expect the universe to unfold in exactly the same way. It's just a complicated way of philosophising on whether we have genuine freedom of choice, or whether everything happens the way it does because it <i>has</i> to happen that way.