Originally Posted by pouffywall

Or, if you believe in the whole chain reaction type of thing, you might be inclined to believe you don't make decisions at all, and it is simply a previous (highly specific) chemical arrangement that spurred the action, which creates a new (also highly specific) chemical arrangement. In other words, that we humans have no freedom of choice because all we are is a system. A very complicated system, of course, but still one with a set reaction for every action and no leeway.

tl;dr We don't make decisions at all, we just appear to make decisions

Quantum physics and its randomness seems to throw this theory out the window, though. Hey, but I'm just a student who am I to say.

Originally Posted by Zelda

I'ma go ahead and move this to off-topic like Ele suggested. It should do better there than it would here.
-----

Saying "You don't make your decisions, the chemical reactions inside of you do." has never made too much sense to me. You are those chemical reactions, the two things you are contrasting are the same thing.

Originally Posted by pouffywall

Well think about it like this...

Try flipping a coin. Was it heads? Was it tails? Now think about the probability of either of those solutions. After the fact, was it still 50/50? If you recreate every little detail of the moment you flipped the coin, between the weight of the coin, the motions of your hand, the air current in the room, the temperature of the air and the coin, what do you think the outcome would be? It would be exactly the same. After the fact, we know that if you replayed that moment 100 different times, you would get the very same result every time. Now, apply this to the human brain. A rather more complicated system than the flipping of a coin, but still an explainable system. If you recreate the exact conditions inside and outside of your brain the moment you make a decision, you should get the exact same result every single time. In theory, at least.

Hence my statement that you only appear to make decisions.