¿FREE WILL/PREDESTINATION?

I believe that human beings exercise free will, but that our destiny is mapped out already. Is this a contradiction you may ask yourself? However, for as long as I can remember, I have discussed this topic and pondered if we have FREE WILL or are our lives PREDESTINED. I have tried to understand why humans make the choices they make because I am of the opinion that we do NOT have FREE WILL in a practical sense. Hence, what we have is REALLY a choice, which may OR may not be a free one at any given time. Let me explain.

A newborn baby comes into this world devoid of what society perceive as right OR wrong. He or she sees a lighted candle, and innocently via curiosity, reaches out to touch this candle or flame. Then he or she gets burned. This experience is now filed away in the mind for future reference un-consciously. So the next time that child sees a lighted candle, he or she is less inclined to touch the flame, less he or she be burned once again! This to my mind is FREE CHOICE, based on some prior or learned experience.

Now FREE WILL is another factor that humans claim to have, but I feel that it is simply the influences that the brain absorbs mentally. Hence, these thoughts provide us with data when the need arises to act in any given situation. Therefore, if one considers a shackled slave that is trying to free himself, one would stand to reason that this slave could not escape without the assistance of another. This slave cannot WILL his freedom and his desire to be free comes from the actual realization that he has to move himself from captivity physically. This to my mind is FREE WILL! 

We humans are NOT completely masters of our fates, nor are we puppets. I feel that GOD gave us limited power AND great freedom and this autonomy makes us accountable for OUR deeds. We cannot know our future and, to a large extent, we cannot control it. Nevertheless, we can make decisions within the limits of what we can control, based on our understanding of the way the world works. I feel that GOD has determined when things would come into existence AND much like the matrix, that says that the CHOICE HAS BEEN MADE ALREADY, WE ARE ONLY HERE TO UNDERSTAND WHY.