First, let me thank you for your in-depth and thorough response. I truly enjoy when people engage in a meaningful manner, so thank you.

I tend to agree with the Buddhists on the concept of self, that it to is an illusion. Didn’t really go into it in this video, but have in previous episodes. Not sure why I didn’t really start with that, I appreciate you mentioning that argument.

As for my distinction between one cause verse many and your argument against it, I think that you are correct. It is often easy to garble thoughts in these videos as I don’t prepare or plan anything prior. Even if there were just one cause, it would still be determinism, for as you mention destiny means that no matter what happens you still end up in the same place.

I don’t necessarily agree with what you are arguing at the end, because chemical reactions will react exactly the same no matter where the chemicals come from. Environmental factors do play a role (pressure, temp, etc) but are significantly less nuanced than human environmental factors. Again, chemical reactions will react the same when you nullify any differences in environment, where humans do not. This is the same argument we had on my sociology post hehe 🙃

Great response! Have you thought of answering the TSU question? :)