Are our lives completely predetermined?

[Kit-]

Originally Posted by Could_Strife007

Because, you cannot prove that free will exists, which means that you cannot conclude that our universe is not completely physical.

We can prove that everything in the universe is created from physical particles, whose movement is defined by a potentially predictable path of entropy. This proof is based on repeated and expected sensory perception of experimental data and materials.

If we were to define 'proof' as a repeated belief in an idea, then we could prove that free will exists. But because we cannot prove anything beyond sensory perception, we must now conclude that free will does not exist and the universe is predetermined.

Which is where our friend Werner Heisenberg comes into play. We can't pinpoint the exact location of any particle; we can only find the probability that it's going to be in any spot at any given time. The universe is not deterministic. See Young's double slit experiment. Clearly, if quantum mechanics were faulty, we would see that photons shot one at a time through a double slit could not interfere with each other and would produce a pattern of two peaks. However, we do see this interference pattern which is characteristic of interfering waves, and thus must draw the conclusion that the photons are interfering with themselves--the probability function on the screen is given by the combination of both slits, supporting the argument that the location of particles is not precise, but given by a probability function.