[Lestat]

I feel like a kindergartner in a college class here, but...

<font color="blue"> (important note: determinism does not depend on the big bang, or however the universe was created, but just some state of the world before your birth) </font>

Well, wait a sec... Can you explain this to a kindergartner?:

If it doesn't go all the way back to the big bang, then how can it be true? If the first act of the universe didn't set in motion the exact "state of the world before your birth", then what did? And if there could've existed "some other state of the world before your birth", then there could've been a 3rd, and so on, until we arrive at some such state that could've altered current events. This renders any determinism null and void, no?

I don't get "soft" determinism. Things are either determined or they aren't. We either have free will, or we don't. I don't see the space for any in between or gray area.