On choice, design and predictability.
Suppose the universe exists by design of another superior creature (something I don't entirely believe in). Then, this creator may just have designed the rules and pressed the 'start' button. But these rules include randomness in them (true randomness). Then, no, the end result will not be foreseeable. If you want an example, the designer of chess simply listed the rules, but he cannot predict the exact outcome of all the games.
What is choice? I think choice is randomness, and that is having the liberty of taking each outcome out of a possible set. Of course we can always believe, after we have done something, that it was predetermined from all eternity. That's simply a coping way, a resignation to all bad things that happen. As it is said often in 'Arabian Nights' when some tragedy happens, 'Maktub! It was written!'. That's just an easy way to accomodate to loss and guilt. But even though we'll never be able to prove it while we can not go back in time, I do think we have the possibility of choice at each point.
Present day quantum physics suggests there is real randomness in the universe. If there is, then not everything is deterministic. If our own actions are deterministically implied by outside variables, inevitability some of them will depend on truly random events and thus will become random. Not uniformly random, ok, but still random, which is, not deterministic.
We could argue that randomness is just an inability to compute the interaction between all relevant variables. For instance, when you throw a die, you could argue that if you new the exact rugosity of the table it will land on (assuming there is one), the speed you threw it with, the angle, the air resistance, etc, etc, etc, then you could totally determine the face up. But there are just too many variables and inter-relations for us to be able to conceive a good model, let alone compute it. However, interaction between two objects is controlled by the weak and strong mollecular forces between the components of both objects, and at this level, classical physics is not valid anymore, you need quantum effects. And if indeed there is true randomness here, then you'll never ever have the chance of guessing the right face up even if you had unlimited computational power.
I didn't read the posts in full, I just wanted to say that to me full-determinism, creationism and intelligent design are very very far from credible.
Alex