>>46623
Unless you believe in a higher power (and truly, if you do I mean no offense), the only logical conclusion to which science allows us to come is that we are programmed by the universe to do everything in the exact way we do it, down to the last atom.
From the Big Bang (and perhaps even before), all of the countless materials of the universe split off into different directions and reacted to each other in different ways. But these weren't random reactions; they were completed through physical laws and properties which we can still observe and predict today. If we are to believe that there is any sort of order in this universe, then everything can be explained and predicted through these laws without exception; and if there are exceptions, then the law either falls under the jurisdiction of another or several other laws, or is false.
Take a simple reaction for example: sodium and chloride. A sodium ion and a chloride ion will, when put into the same space, be attracted to each other through opposing electrical charges (and gravity to some extent) and form sodium chloride. Any time this does not happen, we assume that there is some other force acting on the ions. The ions can't "choose" to stay apart or to come together; something must always be making them do either one or the other.
The same goes for any piece of matter, including life. The first organism on Earth was not an accident; it was an inevitable occurrence due to the laws of the universe. There was never a "chance" of you being born and achieving consciousness; it was bound to happen. And the only reason you are the person you are is because of your chemical makeup.
We like to say that people with brain disorders no longer have free will, or that many animals and other organisms don't have free will. Well, what's the definition of free will? Pretty flighty when you think about it. Yes, YOU know that YOU can choose to either respond to this post with an educated rebuttal or by calling me a faggot. But the only reason you pick one over the other is because of your personality, which is a result of your genetic code and your natural influences. You are a product of those two things and nothing more. Raised in a different environment, you would not be the same person you are today and would likely not even be on this thread or have this fetish. Same goes for if you were born with some sort of brain damage, which would have all sorts of impacts on your personality and choices. This lends itself to the idea that the concept of "free will" is arbitrary, and that we are all just robots programmed to believe that the choices we're making are our own.
So yeah, real uplifting stuff.