Ask the Chicken

I woke up with a deep thought, which is a big deal since the only thought I usually wake up with is ‘I want to go back to sleep.’

You can’t have an effect without an cause, right? Sometimes it’s a series of causes and effects to make the final effect happen. For example: a ball is thrown. Let’s look at it by working backwards to the original source:

Effect: ball thrown
Cause: muscles in arm, wrist, and fingers contract/expand to perform the task

Effect: muscles contract/expand as needed
Cause: brain sends signals to proper muscles

Effect: neurons send signals to each other across synapses in the brain to send the message to the muscles
Cause: you make the decision to throw the ball

Effect: you make the decision to throw the ball
Cause: ???

What cause precipitates the decision?

Science explains that everything we think and do is the result of something similar to an electrochemical event in our brains. These events are the cause of all the cascading events that follow it. But, there is no explanation of how the first event happens; what is the cause of our decision making?

How can our decisions, our poetry, our hopes and dreams, be purely the result of neurons chatting with each other? If that were so, our thoughts would be random, chaotic events with no particular purpose.

Or is there a primary cause?

Is it something outside of our brain? Is this first cause our soul? And if so, what is the cause of our soul’s decisions? Is it outside of us? Is it God?

Do the electrochemical events in my brain make my decisions? Or, do my decisions, coming from some other source, cause the electrochemical events?

I guess we’ll have to ask a chicken.