A Thought About Coffee and Determinism

I am quite sure there is "nothing new under the sun" and no really new or original ideas, but a thought came to me regarding determinism that I  have not heard expressed by others.   

Naturalistic determinism would have us believe that every effect has a prior cause and that everything that occurs is the result of a prior cause, including our thoughts and actions.   Taken to its logical conclusion, we don't have free will.  When we act we are only acting in a way that we were predetermined to act by a multitude of prior causes.  

Here's the problem that I see.


I can understand how, in theory, my desire to go to the coffee shop for a caramel latte might be the result of prior causes.  It might be plausible that at a particular moment in time, physical forces, bodily cravings, and other factors might compel me to head for the local coffee shop.

But it gets implausible when I get to the counter.   Why?

Because there is another individual on the other side of the counter who is, theoretically, also pre-programmed to act only in ways that are determined by prior causes. 

So in order for me to get my caramel latte, nature would have to predetermine that the  response to my request by the other is carried out with no actual free-will of his own.  Nature would have to predetermine both my request and the appropriate responses to that request.

He would need to be predetermined to know that I would be at that counter at a specific moment.  

He would need to be predetermined to know what I would order.

He would need to be predetermined to know whether I would pay for the drink with a credit card or cash and how much change I should get back if I gave him a $20.   

The problem with absolute determinism is that interactions must also be predetermined.  We would have to believe not only that every choice I make is predetermined, but every response to my choices is also pre-programmed in advance to correspond to my choices.  

It seems rather absurd to think that "nature" through endless unguided natural causes could order the universe in such a way as to anticipate how individual events in specific moments in time could correspond and make sense to conscious beings who at least, at the moment, think they are acting freely and independently.

For billions of daily interactions between human beings to make sense in a completely pre-determined universe would seem to require an almost infinite amount of prior planning.  The interactions could not be random occurrences.   

That might be a case for a sort of theistic determinism that some Calvinist thinkers envision, but seems to be a major problem for blind, naturalistic determinism.   

It would also mean that God actually felt it necessary to decide when and where I might crave a caramel latte.

In my mind, believing we were created as beings with a degree of independence and actual free will makes a whole lot more sense.