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ANNOTATION:
This made it past your board?
In the philosophic tradition, Values are not "something we appreciate and want to have" nor are they "something we qualify as good, and are prepared to set as our goals in life." The philosophical sense of the term 'values', also one's 'value system', describes the subset of beliefs dealing with one's affections - the sliding scale of one's likes and dislikes. It has to do with how one values something. Values are just beliefs. One believes this is good, and one believes that is bad. In the brain this is accomplished with associations - this is associated with good, and that is associated with bad. It almost seems like you mean to be talking about morals. It is important to keep in mind what Nietzsche taught us about morals - that they are an opinion, expressed out of selfishness, reflecting how the speaker wants everyone to treat him.
Next issue - our ability or inability to rely on science to give us our ethics. I assert that science can be just as viable a method to determine ethical behavior as any other. What about a very advanced computer simulation that could simulate human society so well, that it could determine the optimum behavior for individuals to exhibit to obtain the most harmonious society? This scientific method would be even more viable than others as it would be based on fact, whereas religion is based in fiction. Of course, getting everyone in society to agree to and then abide by any set of ethical standards is another thing.
As for freewill, you speak as though it is a fact in existence. Freewill has never been proven, and we certainly cannot explain how it could arise from neural networks in the material brain. And it is perfectly possible for the world to be deterministic afterall - with freewill being the illusion. Even though it feels like I have freewill, and I want there to be freewill, it does not make it so. I am aware. I can reason. I can learn. I can feel. I have intention. But none of these show freewill. I personally do believe in freewill, or a least some degree of freewill, but I have no evidence to back it up, and neither do you. I think it is important to be clear about that.
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