Where you believe I have accepted a false dichotomy, I believe you are continuously contradicting yourself.
For the issue of whether the balls on the table are "altered" or not, I believe that's just an issue of semantics, but we both agree that
>Regardless of the fact that, at that time and place, they had to be that way.
Now, back to the issue of people, you say
>The particles do not do the choosing. The thinking human being, as a whole unit, does. The pool table, being non-conscious, becomes a disanalogy at this point.
Remember, a mind is made up of particles just like balls on a table, the only difference is that they are configured in such a way that they give self awareness, and the appearance of will, but these particles are still subject to all of the same laws as matter everywhere. So tell me, what is the special process that you believe occurs, in total violation of the laws of physics, that allows a "conscious" mind (essentially made up of billiard balls) to be able to "choose" to manipulate matter in some way that balls on a table are not?