Is our behavior causally determined by forces beyond your control?

Yes of course.

When you were born, you didnt choose to be born the way you were, that was a result of your mother and fathers genes giving you all of the instincts that you were born with. And when you were raised, what you learn was from your parents and how they taught you, or any other interactions with other people that you came into contact with.

But the only reason that you came into contact with those people was because of (a) the way your mind works and (b) the way you were raised. I.e. Nature and nurture.

And it is not as though your parents could have chosen whether or not to have you any differnently, as the only reason that you were born was a combination of both, their nature and their nurture, and the people that they came into contact with.

The reason you were born was due to the occurrences in your parents lives. They met, perhaps because their brain told them they were hungry and wanted to go to the shop. But why were they hungry? It is not as though there is a small person in your brain trying to manipulate it, the brain is wired as it is. They may have been humgry because they had chosen not to eat before. But why go to the shops rather than going to the fridge? Perhaps because they had already chosen to consume all of the food in the fridge previously? or they had already tried the things in the fridge and feltg like something different?

(yes im ranting, no it may not make sense, but im kinds just writing whats happening in my head.... and i couldn't be ding any differently than writing because of the way my mind was wired and the eperiences that ive had over my life and today that led me to be sitting on this godforsaken uncomfortable chair, which couldn't be any different anyways because of the influences the peoson who furnished this room had in their past, which would explain why they chose the horrible blue colour. And if i choose not to post this, or if i choose to walk away right now to "spite: what i have juse been saying earlier, about having no choice about what i was doing? then i could not have done any differnetly, as that decusion would have been made be (a) what i wrote previously, and (b) my brain trying to spite itself and reject the idea of a causally determined world. because then again, who wants to live in a world where they can't control whats happening?)

but the idea of free will is necessary for society to continue to function, i mean, just writing about the lack of free will now, i am more likely to (as some studies say) cheat, become more aggressive, simply because i have something to blame it on, other than myself. If i blamed myself for hurting someone, i would be less likely to do it, but if i said, "i had no choice, i have no free will" (which, just saying that is a result of me studying the subject, which was a result of me taking a philosophy course, which was a result of me changing out of engineering, which was a result of how boring the lectures were, which was a result of how the lecturers were feeling at the time, which was a result of their lack of a sex life, which was a result of their boring upbringing, which was a result of their parents union, which was a result of ... blah blah blah, back until the beginning of time.

the criminal system that we have in place is based off the idea that free will exists, and if we started releasing prisoners because they had no free will and didnt choose to become pedophiles, imagine what the world would be like?!

intense......

anywho, that's my 2 cents, i have no idea how old this question is, or even if this was the answer you were looking for, or even if you can understand what im saying through all of my wishy washy stuff, and going off (but still on) topic... really though... i couldn't have helped it. I have no free will.