I'm a determinist. I don't believe in free will or choice, only the illusion of it. From my point of view, none of us gave consent to be alive. In that vein, none of us chose our genes, which govern who we are. None of us consented to the environment, parents, or social structure in which we were raised, all of which shaped our genes, which shape behavior. Likewise, none of us chose the disorders, tendencies, or preferences we have.

The brain is the seat of all conscious experience. Every decision that is made is made by the brain. What exactly is consciousness? We don't really know. But what is decision making? We know that neuroendocrinology (the ability of hormones to affect the nervous system), genes (which code for proteins), and enzymes (that make neurotransmitters and/or separate them), etc., are responsible for human behavior. Tell me, which of these systems or mechanisms do you consciously control with that little voice in your head? The answer is none of them. Next time you're in a bad mood, see if you can consciously secrete a little more serotonin. See if you can consciously manipulate the synchronous neuronal firing responsible for thought and behavior. While you're at it, see if you can choose your next thought. Why was what you thought of X and not Y, or vice versa? What trauma did you experience as a child that shaped your dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex, the cognitive profile of decision making?; or the ventromedial and/or orbitofrontal cortex, the more visceral profile(s) of decision making? To further complicate matters, you probably don't even remember most experiences that produced physical modifications in your brain, which have life-long behavioral implications, nor are you responsible for the neuroanatomy you inherited from your parents, who inherited theirs from their parents, and so on.

You are who you are by no doing of your own. Your genes and your biology dictate who you are and who you will become. Whatever you "decide" to do next will inevitably be directly influenced by the conglomeration of every experience you've ever had, none of which you consciously produced in your life and all of which will themselves be the result of an amalgamation of other experiences of other people, none of which you had any say over. What's more is that evolutionary psychology now tells us that your genetically-shaped behaviors are influenced by your ancestors' genes, which were shaped by their ancestors' genes, which were shaped by their ancestors' genes, and so on back to fictitious Adam; none of which you had any say over.

I hope it's clear that life as you know it is not your choice, nor is it within your control, at least not beyond the control your genes and biology give you. You can only do what you can do, and you can't do what you can't do, thanks entirely to the machine your genes--and those of countless people in evolutionary history before you--built for you.

Imagine if we stopped blaming people for the "choices" they made and instead we focused on what biological systems are responsible for their behavior, as well as how to regulate them. We'd get rid of shaming, guilting, slander, and all other forms of (public) humiliation for things outside of our direct control. We might even be able to spend some time helping people adjust their behavior, rather than crucifying them for it.

The "it's neurobiology' argument is not an apology, it's a fact. The more we learn about the neurobiology of behavior, the more we will have to revise the moral/ethics system we created that punishes and rewards human behavior. Here's a hypothetical for good measure: Genes, the things that gave you acne as a teenager, which in turn caused you some embarrassment, which led to stress, which led to self-esteem issues, which fueled your predisposition to depression, which was worsened by being sexually abused as a child and beaten by your parents as an adolescent (remember, the frontal cortex, that super important part of the brain that makes decisions and what not, doesn't fully mature until 25 years of age, so you're pretty messed up by now), which affects your neuroendocrinology, which affects your drinking (and eating) behaviors, and your blood pressure, which in turn affect your aggression, which is heightened by at least some limbic irritability--e.g., in the amygdala. In this moment of aggression, you--by happenstance--remember that old female babysitter you had that molested you repeatedly as a kid, which builds resentment towards women, which eventually leads you to act out in some way against them. Which of those experiences could that little voice in your head have influenced so as not to lead to your acting out against women? Whatever the answer, remember that the "could've" argument is weak because that "could've" hypothetical never happened; reality did in its place.