Ok, I was raised as a Dutch Reformed.. Not the black suit black socks black shoes kind, but still.. Alas, I started thinking for myself, and discovered that there is a lot out there that can be explained by just common sense. That’s why I’d like to preach the word of my religion: causual determinism.

Causal determinism is, roughly speaking, the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent
events and conditions together with the laws of nature. (source: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

This means that every situation could theoretically be predicted, since it is the natural result of the previous situation. Everything in the universe is made out of atoms and particles, which apply predictable forces to other particles. This applies to everything, even the process of thinking. So if you think something, it’s not entirely free will.. it’s just the logical result of the atoms in your head moving in the direction they should move. So even if you think you’ve made a decision, it’s really the only logical outcome of the thinking process.. So does that make your decision truly a decision? Makes you wonder eh?

Of course, the theory that everything can be predicted will always be theoretical. You’d have to know the state of all atoms in the entire universe on a single moment to calculate the next state. And that raises three impossibilities:
a) We will never have the calculating power to do so

b) As we are investigating the situation of everything, we are influencing everything at the same time
c) We could never determine what ‘the next tick’ is, since it’s the amount of time so close to 0, that we could never calculate it.

It seemed so simple; there is no god, just nature. Just as long as you don’t philosophise too much about it..

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/determinism-causal/